Zelenskyy to world: Protest Ukraine invasion
YIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made an impassioned plea on Thursday for citizens worldwide to pour onto streets and squares in protest against Russia’s bloody month-old invasion of his country.
In a late-night television address from the emptied streets of his nation’s besieged capital Kyiv, a defiant but visibly tired Zelenskyy appealed in English for worldwide solidarity.
“The world must stop the war,” he said. “Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities. Come in the name of peace. Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life.”
His appeal came one month after Russian tanks rolled over the Ukrainian border, bringing a conflict that has killed thousands of civilians and soldiers on both sides.
More than 10 million Ukrainians have already fled homes and cities under sustained Russian bombardment from land, sea and air.
There is growing evidence that Russia’s once-vaunted military has become badly bogged down, and has been forced to turn to long-range bombardment to break Ukrainian resolve.
In the southern port city of
Mariupol alone, 100,000 people are trapped without food, water or power and enduring fierce shelling by Russian forces.
In the city’s hospital, local officials said staff have evacuated patients to the basement, where they are treated by candlelight beside 600 to 700 other local residents seeking what little safety they can.
The United States on Wednesday said the Kremlin’s bombing campaign amounted to war crimes, further escalating a confrontation between Moscow and the West that has rivaled the worst crises of the Cold War.
“We’ve seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
“Based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.”
So far the conflict has not spilt over into direct military conflagration between Russia and the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but there are growing fears Russia may up the ante with a chemical, biological or even tactical nuclear attack.
US President Joe Biden is in Brussels for back-to-back emergency NATO, Group of Seven and European Union summits from Thursday that are expected to bring pledges of more lethal weapons for Ukraine, more punishing sanctions on Russia’s already crisiswracked economy and warnings about further escalation.
Ukrainian resistance
NATO officials believe that — armed with an arsenal of Western antitank and anti-aircraft weapons — Ukrainian forces may have already killed as many as 15,000 Russian soldiers and possibly wounded 30,000 and 40,000 troops.
Putin’s regime officially puts the number of the Russian fallen at below 500, and has introduced draconian censorship laws to prevent independently verified news about what it calls a “special military operation.”
But Ukrainian civilians continue to bear the brunt of the war.
Zelenskyy admitted last month had been “long,” but hailed Ukrainian resistance that had been much more ferocious than Russia expected and would endure for as long as it took.
“This is a war for independence and we must win,” the president said in the late-night address, flitting between Ukrainian and his native Russian.
“We will rebuild every city, we will bring the invaders to justice for every crime,” he added. “All our people will live in a free Ukraine.”
Recent days have brought claims of Ukrainian forces not only repelling attacks from the much larger and much better armed Russian military but launching counteroffensives and winning back territory around Kyiv.
British military intelligence said Ukraine had “probably retaken Makariv and Moschun” to the northwest of the capital, and “there is a realistic possibility that Ukrainian forces are now able to encircle Russian units in Bucha and Irpin.”
Meanwhile, as it faces mounting diplomatic and economic pressure, Putin’s regime has responded by warning Russia could use nuclear weapons if it faces an “existential threat,” and launched tit-for-tat retaliation against the West.
Moscow moved to expel US diplomats in retaliation for Washington’s move earlier this month to remove 12 of Moscow’s US-based representatives from the United Nations.