Volodymyr Zelenskyy ramps up pressure on Western allies to send tanks
Davos, The Gulf Observer: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy bared frustration Thursday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Davos about not obtaining enough tanks from some Western countries to help his country defend itself from Russia.
Speaking by video link at a breakfast with U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Zelenskyy offered a veiled critique of countries like Germany, Poland and the United States crucial supporters of Ukraine that have nonetheless hesitated about sending tanks.
Zelenskyy bemoaned a “lack of specific weaponry” and said that to win the war, “we cannot just do it with motivation and morale.”
“And I would like to thank again for the assistance from our partners,” he said at the Victor Pinchuk Foundation breakfast through an interpreter. “But at the same time, there are times where we shouldn’t hesitate or we shouldn’t compare when someone says, ‘I will give tanks if someone else will also share his tanks.’
Zelenskyy also said air defense was “our weakness” in light of targeted Russian strikes, including use of Iranian-made drones, and reiterated his call for supplies of long-range artillery to fire at Russian forces in Ukrainian territory not fire into Russia itself.
Zelenskyy used a speech to the political leaders and corporate executives assembled in the Swiss ski resort of Davos to urge his allies not to hesitate.
“The supplying of Ukraine with air defense systems must outpace Russia’s vast missile attacks. The supplies of Western tanks must outpace another invasion of Russian tanks,” he said by video.
The Ukrainian delegation to Davos, including Zelenskyy’s wife, Olena Zelenska, has been pushing for more aid. It’s never clear how much concrete action actually emerges from a gathering where leaders and businesspeople discuss the world’s problems from climate change to a slowing economy as well as deal-making on the sidelines.
