Burç Eruygur
30 March 2023•Update: 30 March 2023
ISTANBUL
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that his country’s democracy maintains “absolute internal unity,” even in the face of a total war against its people.
“To win – is our national goal. What does it mean to win? Our answer is clear: to preserve freedom, to preserve dignity, to preserve our land,” Zelenskyy said in a video address at the virtual Summit for Democracy initiated by US President Joseph Biden.
Noting that Russia has been at war with “the democracies of the world” for “a long time,” Zelenskyy said Moscow has been fighting this war with “disinformation, election interference, espionage, corruption exporting, cybercrime, by trying to trigger an energy crisis and price explosions in markets that will hit your people with insane electricity or gas bills.”
He said Russia has also tried to use food provision as a “weapon” by “blocking the sea to create a shortage in the global food market.”
“Why is this happening? This is war, ladies and gentlemen. This is war precisely against freedom and democracy,” he said.
Zelenskyy also said that a three-part strategy to make "evil lose the war" should be adopted.
“First. We should not think how to save (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's face in order to allegedly reduce the cost of fighting him.”
Zelenskyy later listed the further supply of weapons to Ukraine and further sanctions against Russian assets as the other two aspects of this strategy.
“Global pressure on the Russian elite is weaker than its motive to accept the Kremlin. Support for Ukrainian soldiers in the trenches is less far-reaching than the weapons of the terrorists acting against us. And your own willingness to defend your democracies is less resolute than the intentions of those who want a world war against democracy. Democracy needs a victory. Now! This year! Not some other time. Not over time,” he added.
