Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said that his country was looking at reclaiming Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. File Photo.
Davos: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said that his country was looking at reclaiming Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, as he called on his Western allies to provide Ukraine with more weapons.
“Our objective is to liberate all of our territories,” he told an audience in Davos, speaking in Ukrainian. “Crimea is our land, our territory, our sea, and our mountains. Give us your weapons and we will bring our land back.”
Zelenskyy also expressed his gratitude to countries like the United Kingdom, France and Poland for providing extensive military reinforcements to tackle the renewed Russian onslaught on Ukrainian cities.
“I would like to thank again our partners,” Zelenskyy told a panel including Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and former British prime minister Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum being held in Davos.
“But at the same time, there are times when we shouldn’t hesitate and say: ‘I will give tanks if someone else shares their tanks.’ I don’t think this is the right strategy to go with,” he elaborated in a veiled reference to his negotiations with Germany which has been delaying sending tanks to the war-hit nation and insisting that it would provide tanks only as part of an international coalition of tank aid.
Zelenskyy has been pleading for Germany for some time now to send Leopard 2 battle tanks. But, so far, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has resisted, saying he needed to be in sync with NATO allies, namely the United States.
German media outlets including S?ddeutsche Zeitung reported on Wednesday night that Scholz was now ready to provide the Leopards as long as Washington provides comparable tanks.
“We need all the strength there is out there,” Zelenskyy told the panel by video link from Kyiv.
When asked whether he aimed to reclaim the Crimean Peninsula from Russia, he replied: “Give us your weapons and we will bring our land back.”
“Give them the tanks. There is absolutely nothing to be lost,” Johnson said, a position echoed by fellow panelist Chrystia Freeland, the deputy prime minister of Canada.
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