Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused the West of cowardice as his country has been fighting to push back the Russian military for a month. He made an exasperated appeal for fighter jets and tanks to support Ukrainian resistance to the invader.
Mr Zelensky made the remarks after US President Joe Biden said in a speech that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not stay in power, words the White House immediately sought to downplay.
Ukraine’s president on Sunday denounced the “West’s ping-pong on who and how to hand over planes” and other weapons as Russian missile attacks claim casualties and trap civilians. “I spoke with those defending Mariupol today. I am in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and steadfastness are astonishing,” Mr. Zelensky said in a video, referring to the beleaguered southern city that suffered some of the greatest deprivation and horrors of war.
“If only those who thought for 31 days how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1% of their courage,” he blurted, leaving the rest of the sentence hanging in the balance to testify to his exasperation with the requested help.
Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova was more nuanced in her remarks when she was interviewed on the show Meet the Press from the American television channel NBC, emphasizing rather that his country had heard President Biden “loud and loud”.
“Now it’s up to all of us to stop Putin while it’s still concentrated in Ukraine because this war is not just about Ukraine. It is an attack on democracy,” she said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is in its 32e day. The aim of Russian forces to quickly encircle the capital, kyiv, and force its surrender failed in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance, backed by weapons from the United States and other Western allies.
The British Ministry of Defense says it sees Russian troops trying to encircle Ukrainian forces opposite two separatist, pro-Russian areas in the east of the country, which would cut off that part of the Ukrainian army from the rest of the country. .
Moscow covets the disputed Donbass region, which has been partially controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014. Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, said on Sunday he planned to hold a referendum on membership to Russia “as soon as possible”.
Russia has backed separatist rebels in Luhansk and the neighboring district of Donetsk since an insurgency erupted there shortly after Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. In talks with Ukraine, Moscow demanded that kyiv recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, has accused Russia of seeking to divide Ukraine into two, like North and South Korea. “They will try to unite the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit them against independent Ukraine,” Budanov said in a statement released by the Defense Ministry. He predicted that Ukrainian guerrillas would derail such plans.
Ukraine says that to defeat Russia the West must provide fighter jets and not just missiles and other military equipment. A proposal to transfer Polish planes to Ukraine via the United States has been dropped amid NATO concerns of being drawn into direct fighting with Russia.
In his remarks, Mr Zelensky accused Western governments “of being afraid to just make a decision”. “Who is responsible for the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it Moscow again, thanks to its scare tactics? he asked.
“Our partners must step up their assistance to Ukraine,” President Zelensky said.
Meanwhile, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov confirmed that Russia used aerial cruise missiles to strike a fuel depot and defense factory in Lviv, about 75 kilometers from the Polish border. He said another strike with sea-launched missiles destroyed a depot in Plesetske just west of kyiv, where Ukraine has stored air defense missiles.
These Russian airstrikes rocked a city that has become a haven for around 200,000 people who fled the bombed areas. Lviv, which was largely spared the bombardment, has also been a transit route for most of the 3.8 million refugees who have left Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24.
In his most recent video, President Zelensky angrily warned Moscow that he was sowing deep hatred for Russia among Ukrainians. “You are doing everything to ensure that our people themselves leave the Russian language since it will henceforth be associated with your explosions, your murders and your crimes,” Zelensky said.
Along with the millions who fled Ukraine, the invasion drove more than 10 million people from their homes, almost a quarter of Ukraine’s population. Thousands of civilians were reportedly killed.