The President of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelenski, He said on Wednesday that he is trying to coordinate with his international partners a response to the “fake” referendums organized by Russia in Ukrainian territories.
To do this, he announced that he has spoken this Wednesday with the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan; the chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz; the Prime Ministers of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and the United Kingdom, Liz Truss; the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
“Our key task now is to coordinate actions with partners in response to fake referendums organized by Russia and all related threats. This is not 2014. Everything is clear to everyone. And there will certainly be actions,” Zelensky said in his usual late-night address.
After thanking all of them for their “clear and unequivocal” support, he stated that “Ukraine cannot and will not tolerate any attempt by Russia to seize any part of our land.”
The leaders of four regions in the east and south of Ukraine asked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday for the incorporation of those territories into Russia, with which the annexation process was officially launched following the holding of referendums considered illegal by the international community and kyiv.
The Ukrainian president said that with the German chancellor he also discussed that kyiv expects a missile defense system, and that energy issues were also discussed, including the supply of gas to Europe and “the sabotage in the Nord Stream gas pipeline”.
Zelensky called on Trudeau for Canada to lead a global effort to clear Russian mines and missiles from Ukraine, thanking him for his “willingness to help us.”
He added that with Guterres, as with the British prime minister, he also referred to the sham referendums “and the apparent preparation of the ground by Russia for an attempt to annex our territory. These brutal violations of the UN Charter must be punished.”
Zelensky said he will continue his international contacts on the matter, stating that “if someone in Russia thinks they can get away with everything they are doing in the occupied territory, if someone in Russia expects the world to abandon its own values, frightened by another Russian announcement of annexation, he is wrong.”
Regarding the situation on the war front, he addressed those who “only understand Russian” by saying: “If you want to live, run. If you want to live, give up. If you want to live, fight in your streets for your freedom.”
