A few days before the one year anniversary of the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, asked the allies on Friday to speed up the delivery of weapons to his country, because “there is no alternative but our victory ” since Vladimir Putin’s war plans in the region go beyond Ukraine. So said Zelensky speaking by videoconference at the opening of the Munich Security Conference (MSC).
This informal forum for debates on defense and security, which is held every year in February, brings together in this edition more than 40 heads of state and government and numerous ministers from around a hundred countries, in the Bavarian capital from this Friday until on Sunday.
“While we are discussing the supply of tanks, the Kremlin is thinking of ways to strangle Moldova,” Zelensky said. This week, Moldovan President Maia Sandu claimed that Russian forces were plotting how to destabilize her country with a pro-Russian coup. “It is obvious that Ukraine will not be the last stop for her; it will continue its movement until the end… including all the other states that at some point were part of the Soviet bloc,” warned Volodimir Zelensky.
The Ukrainian leader repeatedly used the idea of ??the absence of an alternative and made a comparison with the Biblical episode of David and Goliath. “We need speed; speed to conclude our agreements, speed of deliveries to strengthen our sling [in reference to the weapon used by David], speed of decisions to limit the Russian potential –said Zelenski-. There is no alternative to speed, because it depends on it that Russia does not destroy more lives. And he stressed: “The delay has always been, and continues to be, a mistake.”
According to Zelensky, there is no alternative but to continue fighting, speed up arms deliveries to Ukraine, achieve Russia’s defeat, and Ukraine’s victory, along with his country’s entry into the EU and NATO. “We must beat Goliath Putin around the world; Goliath must be defeated and must lose, there is no alternative, ”he sentenced.
Volodymyr Zelensky once again portrayed Ukraine as upholding Western values ??of freedom and democracy against tyranny, and insisted that its army must be adequately equipped to fight against Russian forces. After getting promises of German-made Leopard 2 tanks sent by several countries, Zelensky renewed his request to receive fighter planes, a line that most Western countries are reluctant to cross.
The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the French President, Emmanuel Macron, also spoke this Friday, and, among several other leaders, the intervention of the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, is scheduled for this Saturday. The conference is also attended by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
This edition of the MSC conference, often labeled the Davos of defense, is not attended by a Russian delegation. It is the second time in more than twenty years that this has happened, since they no longer attended the 2022 event (despite having been invited), which was held from February 18 to 20 in the midst of the Russian military escalation on the border with Ukraine. At that meeting last year, Zelensky participated in person with a speech in which he reproached the Western allies for their “policy of appeasement” with Putin’s Russia. Shortly after, on February 24, Putin launched the invasion.
This year 2023 the organizers of the MSC have not extended an invitation to Russia, which in recent years used to be represented by the Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov. An eternity ago, in February 2007, Vladimir Putin himself gave an in-person speech at the Munich Security Conference.