E-Paper
'Help yourself by helping us...': Ukraine's Zelenskyy appeals to West for arms
Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Ukrainian military has been rapidly using up weapons and other hardware provided by western nations
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday appealed to the European leaders for more weapons to counter Russia’s invasion of his country, as Moscow forces are escalating their bombardment, edging closer to the heart of Kyiv. Addressing European leaders of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), Zelenskyy said,"We all are the targets of Russia and therefore, everything will go against Europe if Ukraine won't stand, so I would like you to help yourself by helping us."
He added that the Ukrainian military has been rapidly using up weapons and other hardware provided by western nations.
The fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops for Kyiv has intensified on Tuesday, with artillery fire echoing through the city and Russia launching a flurry of strikes that blew out windows and ignited a huge fire in an apartment. Explosions around the city caused significant structural damage, with shockwaves from a blast tearing through the entrance of a downtown subway station that has been used as a bomb shelter and another igniting a fire in Kyiv’s northern Podilsky district.
Appealing for a full trade embargo on Moscow, Zelenskyy said, "We have to acknowledge Russia as a rogue state and there has to be a trade embargo with Russia… This is something that we need and you need as well, just like the rest of the world, to make sure there is peace in Europe and Ukraine.”
Expressing his frustration yet again over NATO’s refusal to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine, the president said NATO was "the strongest alliance in the world" but "some of the members of this alliance are hypnotised by Russian aggression".
"We hear a lot of conversations about the third world war, that allegedly it could start if NATO will close the Ukrainian sky for Russian missiles and planes and therefore the humanitarian no-fly zone was not yet established," BBC quoted Zelenskyy as saying.
"That allows the Russian Army to bombard peaceful cities and blow up housing blocks and hospitals and schools. Four multi-storey buildings in Kyiv in the early morning were bombarded, leaving dozens of people dead," he told JEF leaders.
The United Kingdom-led JEF is a grouping of ten North Atlantic countries designed to react quickly to international crises. It includes NATO members such as Britain and the Baltic states, as well as non-NATO countries such as Sweden and Finland.
Zelenskyy also spoke about joining NATO and said his country understands it does not have an open door to the group's membership and, therefore, proposes a way to protect itself independently provided it has security guarantees.
"If we cannot enter through open doors, then we must cooperate with the associations with which we can, which will help us, protect us ... and have separate guarantees," Reuters quoted him as saying.
(With agency inputs)
