Ukraine will ask the US for more heavy weapons to defeat Russia, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, before the US Secretary of State and Defense paid a “very significant” visit to Kyiv on Sunday.
The Ukrainian president said the US and Britain had given his embattled country the “best military support” since Vladimir Putin’s invasion two months ago. He said he would present an “armaments list” to the Biden government on Sunday to thwart Russia’s ongoing attempt to seize the Donbass region.
With sufficient armament, the Ukrainian military could “tomorrow” recapture areas temporarily occupied by Russian forces in the south and east, Zelenskyy said. He acknowledged that his “Western partners”, particularly Washington, had recently accelerated arms supplies.
Firefighters walk past an apartment building damaged by Russian shelling in Odessa, Ukraine. Photo: Max Pshybyshevsky/APHe commended European leaders who have been brave enough to come to Ukraine in person and said he hopes US President Joe Biden will visit them as soon as the security situation allows. He said his country doesn’t need “tragic selfies.” Instead, planes and tanks would be required, he suggested.
Zelenskyy’s pleas for further Western aid came at an extraordinary press conference in Kyiv. It took place at a deep underground location apparently chosen to protect the President from a Russian bombing raid. More than 200 journalists were called to the Khreshchatyk metro station.
After security, they rode an elevator down several hundred meters and then walked through a Soviet-decorated chamber to the Independence Square subway station. A silver podium had been set up in front of a Ukrainian flag and trident. Trains rolled past unreal.
The President arrived at 7:30 p.m. local time, flanked by Ukrainian commandos. It was Zelenskyy’s biggest media event since Moscow vowed in February to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine. The Kremlin’s plan to capture Kyiv within a few days failed and has now turned into an open-ended war of conquest.
At a meeting with his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu last week, Putin was strangely seen clutching the table. When asked by the Observer whether a possible illness explained the Russian leader’s decision to invade Ukraine, Zelenskyy said: “It’s difficult to judge.”
He stressed: “The Russian Federation has always wanted something like this to happen. Many Russians don’t believe that we are independent. We’re trying to repel an invading invasion. We fight for the right to life. It is a war for the freedom of Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy compared the behavior of the Russian military in Ukraine to that of the German fascist troops who subjugated Europe 80 years ago. “These are Russian Nazis. They will forever go down in history as barbarians,” he said, citing the killing of civilians, including women and children, and widespread rape.
Looking a little weary and dressed in a gray military fleece, Zelenskyy spoke passionately about the destruction of peaceful communities. He said five Russian missiles struck the port city of Odessa on Saturday, killing eight people in an apartment building and injuring eight.
One of the dead was a three-month-old baby. “Try to understand. The war began when the child was one month old. These are pure bastards. They are monsters. It’s scary. They don’t care,” he said. A future war crimes tribunal would bring justice to the Russian leadership, he added.
Zelenskyy confirmed his willingness to meet Putin for personal negotiations. “I’m not afraid,” he declared after reports of multiple Russian plots to kill him. But he said Ukraine would call off talks if Moscow proceeded with what he called a “pseudo-referendum” in southern Kherson province next week.
Russia appears poised to legitimize its land grabs by holding a sham vote in occupied territories, similar to the 2014 “referendums” that created the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. A re-vote would mean the talks with Russia were “just theater with very bad actors,” he said.
Zelenskyy described the situation in besieged Mariupol as “monstrous”. He admitted that Ukraine is facing hundreds of Russian armored vehicles and is unable to “unlock” the port city or its steel factory where civilians have taken refuge.
Russia continued to bomb the Azovstal plant just hours after Putin promised all attacks would stop, Zelenskyy said. Kyiv has offered to trade the civilians trapped inside for Russian soldiers, but Moscow has turned down offers of “pragmatic dialogue,” he complained.
Zelenskyy said he was immensely proud of Ukrainians who defended their country against Russian attack. “They are heroes,” he said. He also praised the media, describing them as “apostles” in the fight for truth at a time when Russia was bombarding its people with lies and disinformation.
The President said the war brought its citizens together. It has also given the European Union a sense of shared values and a new strategic purpose for NATO, he suggested. “We have unity. We need guns,” he said before taking an escalator back to his presidential office.
On Thursday, the US pledged $800 million worth of more arms to Ukraine. Biden said he would ask Congress for more money and promised to send heavy artillery, dozens of howitzers and 144,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as tactical drones.
“We are now in a critical window in which they will set the stage for the next phase of this war,” Biden said, referring to Russia’s attack on the Donbass. The US and its allies would act “as soon as possible” to provide Zelenskyy with the equipment and weapons he needs, Biden added.
Zelenskyy will meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Sunday.
In a further development, Turkey announced on Saturday that it would close its airspace to Russian civilian and military aircraft flying to Syria.
The announcement marks one of Turkey’s strongest responses to Russia’s two-month military attack on Ukraine, which despite its NATO membership maintains close ties with Moscow.
“We have closed the airspace to Russian military planes – and even civilian ones – flying to Syria. They had until April and we asked in March,” Turkish media quoted Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu as saying.
Çavuşoğlu said he conveyed the decision to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, who then forwarded it to Putin.