Zelensky compares Hamas attack to Russia’s
Condemns Iran for sale of drones to Moscow
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Monday condemned Hamas for its surprise assault on Israel and likened the attack to Russia’s invasion of his own country. In a speech to NATO, he also criticized Iran for its support of Hamas and Moscow.
It is the second speech that Zelensky, who spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Sunday, has delivered in support of Israel since Hamas’s incursion into Israel. In another sign of the Ukrainian government’s strong backing for Israel, electronic billboards in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, were lit with the Israeli flag on Sunday night.
Zelensky said Hamas and Moscow were “the same evil, and the only difference is that there is a terrorist organization that attacked Israel, and here is a terrorist state that attacked Ukraine.”
“If the world unites whenever someone takes women hostage and condemns the children of another nation, terror will have no allies,” he said in a speech delivered by video link to a meeting in Copenhagen of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
“The intentions declared are different, but the essence is the same. You see it in the same blood on the streets,” he said. His discourse was consistent with a wider aim, pursued by Zelensky since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion, of setting Ukraine’s struggle in the context of global struggles for freedom and independence.
Zelensky compared the killings of civilians in Israel in recent days to those in the city of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, in the early weeks of Russia’s invasion last year. Hundreds of Ukrainians were tortured or killed in a series of atrocities being investigated for war crimes.
In an impassioned speech to the NATO assembly, Zelensky also singled out Iran for its sale to Moscow of exploding drones, hundreds of which have been launched at Ukraine on the battlefield and in civilian areas. He noted that Iranian officials had also expressed support for Hamas.
In addition to its commitment to supply Moscow with exploding drones, Iran has also arranged to produce them at a factory in Russia, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in an intelligence report Monday.
The war in Israel comes more than four months into a counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces that aims to regain territory in the east and south of the country. The assault has yet to achieve a decisive breakthrough and this has made it all the more important for Kyiv to shore up support among its allies in NATO amid signs that some have wavered. Analysts have argued that visible success on the battlefield would make it easier for Ukraine to sustain its international network of support.
President Biden said last week that he was confident that Congress would approve military and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine “for as long as it takes” despite opposition among some Republicans. His comments were an attempt to reassure Ukraine’s allies after the House passed a stopgap spending bill that did not include additional money for Kyiv.
At the same time, voters in Slovakia, an eastern European state with historical ties to Moscow, elected a party led by Robert Fico, a former prime minister who had taken a pro-Russian stance during the campaign.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive has focused on regaining land in the south and around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which fell to Russian forces in May. But it has also been forced to defend against an attempt by Moscow to advance near the small city of Kupiansk in the northeast.
Russian troops have also raised their pressure on Marinka, a small city in the Donetsk region where artillery duels have raged since the earliest days of the full scale invasion. Marinka also saw fierce fighting after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine in 2014.
A Ukrainian soldier, Lieutenant Ihor Skliar, gave an insight into the latest battle when he spoke on national television Monday. Russia has been “constantly storming the positions” of the city’s defenders, he said, describing the city as “virtually destroyed.”
In tandem with fighting on the front lines, Russian forces have kept up a daily barrage of missile, drone, and artillery strikes against Ukraine.