Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his main messages about Russia’s ongoing menace to further invade the country in a question-and-answer session with foreign journalists at his office on Bankova Street in Kyiv.
Walking into the chamber, he challenged the assembly of journalists by saying,
“I’m the president of Ukraine and I’m based here, and I think I know the details better here.“
Ukraine’s second war-time president since independence concurred with Western intelligence that a larger-scale war with Moscow is “imminent” but said the interpretations differ on what the amassing of 130,000 Russian well-equipped troops mean along the country’s state borders.
The candid discussion took place as Ukraine’s voice has been drowned out amid a frenzy of diplomacy to deter Russia from making further military inroads in a war that Moscow has waged since 2014 to the cost of 15,000 lives.
As in two previous video addresses to the nation since Jan. 19, Zelensky again blamed the media for making the threat of bigger warfare “worse” while repeating the need for “preemptive sanctions” on Russia for warmongering. He furthermore said that any war risk statements by other countries should be weighted.
He also called moves by the U.S. and other Western embassies to start reducing non-essential staff as “a mistake.”
Already, Zelensky said, the economy needs $4.5 billion in additional help to assuage fears of an ongoing war with Russia that has been limited to about 3% of territory in the eastern part of the country. The country’s hryvnia currency is depreciating, inflation is above 10%, and gasoline and diesel prices have risen more than 15% since the beginning of the year.
During the one-hour, twenty-minute session, Zelensky said he didn’t disagree with U.S. assessments that a further Russian invasion is “imminent” but that Ukrainian intelligence views Russian movements differently and are part of “psychological pressure.”
The movements represent 130,000 Russian well-equipped soldiers being deployed around Ukraine, 20,000 more than in December, in addition to permanent forces in illegally annexed Crimea and the occupied parts of the easternmost Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
“We see troops coming and going…some being withdrawn,” Zelensky said. Military accumulations usually occur “during big meetings like the Normandy talks” that took place on January 26 between the political advisers of the Ukrainian, French, German and Russian governments in Paris.
While Britain and the U.S. have warned that Russia could double its forces “on short notice,” Zelensky has in two video addresses to the nation offered reassurance and urged calm.
“For me, possible [military] escalation is not less acute than what the U.S. and our other partners say,” he said. “We are looking up and laterally…and I’m not misleading anyone [of the danger]…we’ve been in this situation for eight years” with Russia at the doorstep.
His reference was to the war that Russia has waged since 2014 when it invaded the south and eastern parts of the country and for which Russia had Western sanctions imposed for its actions.
Zelensky added that his administration is taking every step “toward dialogue” to prevent further war “to find a peaceful resolution in this process…we must speak out…we cannot say that war will happen tomorrow or in February.”
There is no need to panic too, he said.
“We’re doing everything to prepare for an attack…we have a powerful army and it has everything it hasn’t had before but we know our economy and military is weaker than Russia’s,” Zelensky said in acknowledging his enemy’s superiority.
Ukrainian soldiers “aren’t novices in that respect and they are not worse than NATO member countries,”
he continued. After eight years of war with Russia, “there are lessons learned, there’s combat experience, and these are people who’ve lost friends [in battle], they’ve protected the state and have fought back.”
Security conditions
He again called for more damaging and systemic sanctions on Russia before a wider invasion takes place, implying that they won’t be as effective afterward. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has defended withholding the imposition of sanctions as a deterrent.
“We need some preventative measures,” Zelensky argued. “NATO offers” such guarantees but only to its members, he said.
Zelensky referred to the joint Russian-Germany Nord Stream 2 (NS2) pipeline as an example. Before its completion and before Russia’s military buildup, Germany had promised to ensure Ukraine still would remain a conduit for Russian natural gas to Europe along with other “energy guarantees,” he said.
Since the situation has changed and NS2 is nearing certification to go online, Zelensky said, “nobody is talking about that now…now there are talks to cutoff NS2” if Russia further invades.
Overall, he added, “if war happens, which country will help us? Nobody,” he said with regard to sending troops to help fight.
Zelensky reminded the foreign journalists assembled that beyond a conventional conflict with Russia, Ukraine is fighting a “proxy war” that involves “informational and cyberattacks.”
He emphasized the threat of imminent war by saying, “yes, [although] we’ve learned how to protect ourselves…we have a different war and learned how to live with this…the threat is always constant, there could always be a provocation, a grenade exploding [somewhere]…but our secret services are working to counter these many subversive things.”
What Putin wants
When asked what his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin wants, the Ukrainian president said Moscow in “deeds” isn’t seeking peace and “wants to break” Ukraine.
Zelensky rhetorically asked why Russia would insist it doesn’t intend to further invade Ukraine if it refuses to hold bilateral talks with Kyiv and why it “needs so many soldiers to frequently hold so many [military] drills.”
And, he continued, “why specifically here on that territory along our [common] border?”
Moscow’s military maneuvers causes “a high-risk situation…it’s sadomasochism…there are ordinary people with houses living along the border!”
Zelensky questioned if such moves are designed “to put our economy flat on its back – we have a country of over 40 million – if you have questions, then let’s have a discussion.”
Russia has refused to meet bilaterally with Ukraine.
The Kremlin insists it is not a party to the war despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary and so has rejected entreaties from Zelensky to peacefully resolve the situation.
Zelensky furthermore questioned why Russia recently said it is willing to talk but only the war in eastern Ukraine isn’t a topic and is held in Sochi or elsewhere in the neighboring country.
“Why Sochi?” the Ukrainian president asked, “to go skiing?”
He facetiously offered the Black Sea coastal city of Odesa as another venue “to go swimming.”
Referring to Russia, Zelensky said there are other topics of discussions like prisoner exchanges. “People don’t understand the value of human life – do you [Russia] enjoy people rotting away in prisons…that’s what this is about, there are many issues and challenges” to discuss.
Toward the end of the session, Zelensky said,
““but life will go on, a new generation will come, we need to agree to negotiate.”“
