“I’ve asked 27 European leaders if we can join NATO, but nobody cares,” Zelensky, dressed in army green, told Ukrainians in an online speech. Who is ready to fight with us against Russia? I see no one. Who is ready to give us the guarantee of NATO membership? Everyone is afraid.” The president himself does not want to budge.
The US State Department says the Ukrainian president is a “major target for Russian aggression”. Zelensky himself said he was convinced of this before, but emphasized that he will not leave the capital Kiev, even now that Russia has labeled the Ukrainian government leader as ‘target number one’. The president announced a general mobilization last night.
EU leaders agreed last night on a new package of tough sanctions against Russia. They will have ‘enormous and serious consequences’ for the country, they say. The leaders met at a scheduled summit in Brussels. Not all details of the sanctions are yet known, but it is certain that Russia is not yet excluded from the international payment system SWIFT. Zelensky explicitly asked for this.
The president yesterday reiterated his wish to exclude Russia from the payment network and to impose an embargo on Russian oil and gas. Zelensky makes no secret of his disappointment with the attitude of EU leaders. He says his country has been “left alone” to fight against Russia, which launched an invasion of Ukraine the day before. The Russians would have reached Kiev by now.