Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday demanded Western nations provide Ukraine with more useful military hardware and asked whether they were afraid of Moscow.
Several countries have promised to supply more anti-armour and anti-aircraft missiles as well as small arms but the Ukrainian president said Kyiv needed tanks, planes and anti-ship systems.
In a late-night video address, the president said, "That is what our partners have, that is what is just gathering dust there. This is all for not only the freedom of Ukraine, but for the freedom of Europe."
Ukraine needed only "one per cent" of NATO's aircraft and one per cent of its tanks and would not ask for more, Zelensky said.
"That is what our partners have, that is what is just gathering dust there. This is all for not only the freedom of Ukraine, but for the freedom of Europe," he said in a late night video address.
"We've already been waiting 31 days. Who is in charge of the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it really still Moscow, because of intimidation?" he said.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly insisted that Russia will seek to expand further into Europe if Ukraine falls. NATO though does not back his request for a no-fly zone over Ukraine on the grounds this could provoke a wider war.
Since Russia’s invasion, the besieged Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has repeatedly warned the West about the danger that Putin would target other European nations.
“Everyone thinks that we are far away from America or Canada. No, we are in this zone of freedom,” Zelensky said in a television interview. “And, when the limits of rights and freedoms are being violated and stepped on, then you have to protect us. Because we will come first. You will come second. Because, the more this beast will eat, he wants more, more, and more.”
The U.S., however, pushed back this week on key military requests from Ukraine, for fear of Russia’s reaction. Putin’s reckless offensive has forced the U.S. to adopt awkward policy positions.
On March 5th, Zelensky made an impassioned appeal to members of the House and Senate for more military aid, notably help in obtaining Soviet-era warplanes that Ukrainian pilots are trained to fly and that could balance Russia’s air superiority.
The Pentagon rejected an offer from Poland to turn over twenty-eight MIG-29 fighter jets to U.S. custody—flying them to a base in Germany—for transfer to Ukraine.
U.S. intelligence officials assessed that an American role in a transfer “may be mistaken as escalatory and could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO,” the Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, told reporters.
U.S. involvement was deemed to be “high risk.” The majority of Ukraine’s warplanes are still intact, a senior Defense Department official added, while acknowledging that Russia’s surface-to-air missiles now have an “umbrella” that covers virtually all of Ukraine.
The Administration cited the same fears about Zelensky’s request for help from nato in establishing a no-fly zone over part of Ukraine to protect civilians.
“We also have to see to it that this war does not expand,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a joint press conference with his British counterpart. “Our goal is to end the war, not to expand it, including potentially expand it to nato territory.”
Otherwise, he warned, “it’s going to turn even deadlier, involve more people, and I think potentially even make things harder to resolve in Ukraine itself.”
