Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday told the Davos summit that Russian President Vladimir Putin would pursue his invasion of Ukraine even if fighting paused on the sprawling front.
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine — nearing its two-year anniversary — has triggered fierce and costly fighting but the front line has barely shifted in the last year.
“After 2014, there were attempts to freeze the war in Donbass,” Zelensky said in reference to the industrial east of his country.
“There were very influential guarantors — the chancellor of Germany, the president of France.”
“But Putin is a predator who is not satisfied with frozen products,” he told the world’s political elites.
Zelensky was referring to the Minsk negotiations between Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia, which aimed to bring an end to fighting between Ukraine’s military and Kremlin-backed separatists, who had occupied swathes of east Ukraine in 2014.
Ukrainian officials have routinely pointed to those rounds of talks in the capital of Belarus as evidence that negotiating with Moscow is pointless, since the Kremlin ordered the invasion of Ukraine despite ceasefire accords.
Zelensky used the stage in Davos to tell the audience that the Russian leader had expansionist aims beyond even Ukraine’s borders.
“If anyone thinks this is only about us, this is only about Ukraine, they are fundamentally mistaken,” he said.
“Possible directions and even timelines of new Russian aggression beyond Ukraine become more and more obvious,” he alleged.
Zelensky said that in order for Kyiv to defeat Moscow’s forces in Ukraine, his forces needed help from the West to bolster its military capabilities in the air.
“We must gain air superiority for Ukraine,” ne stressed.
“Partners know what is needed and in what quantity,” he said, adding: “This will allow progress on the ground.”
Zelensky’s speech comes at a difficult time on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Kyiv’s counter-offensive last summer was largely unsuccessful and its allies in Washington and Brussels are struggling to secure financial aid for Ukraine.
