Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused the West of cowardice as his country has been fighting to push back the Russian army for a month. He made an exasperated appeal for fighter jets and tanks to support the Ukrainian resistance to the invader.
Mr Zelensky made the remarks after US President Joe Biden said in a speech that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not stay in power, words the White House immediately sought to downplay.
Ukraine’s president on Sunday denounced the “West’s ping-pong on who and how to hand over planes” and other weapons as Russian missile attacks claim casualties and trap civilians.
“I spoke with those defending Mariupol today. I am in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and steadfastness are astonishing,” Mr. Zelensky said in a video, referring to the beleaguered southern city that suffered some of the greatest deprivation and horrors of war.
“If only those who have thought for 31 days how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1% of their courage,” he dropped, leaving the rest of the sentence hanging in the balance to show his exasperation with the requested help.
Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova was more nuanced in her remarks when she was interviewed on the show Meet the Press from the American television channel NBC, stressing rather that his country had heard President Biden “loud and loud”.
“Now it’s up to all of us to stop Putin while it’s still concentrated in Ukraine because this war is not just about Ukraine. It is an attack on democracy,” she said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is in its 32and day. The aim of Russian forces to quickly encircle the capital, Kyiv, and force its surrender failed in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance, backed by weapons from the United States and other Western allies.
For its part, the British Ministry of Defense said that it had observed that Russian troops were trying to encircle Ukrainian forces in front of two separatist, pro-Russian areas in the east of the country, which would cut off this part of the Ukrainian army. from the rest of the country.
Moscow covets the disputed Donbass region, which has been partially controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.
Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic, said on Sunday he planned to hold a referendum on joining Russia “as soon as possible”.
Russia has backed separatist rebels in Luhansk and the neighboring district of Donetsk since an insurgency erupted there shortly after Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. In talks with Ukraine, Moscow has demanded Kyiv recognize the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, has accused Russia of seeking to divide Ukraine into two, like North and South Korea.
“They will try to unite the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and oppose them to independent Ukraine,” Budanov said in a statement released by the Defense Ministry. He predicted that Ukrainian guerrillas would derail such plans.
Ukraine says that to defeat Russia, the West must provide fighter jets and not just missiles and other military equipment. A proposal to transfer Polish planes to Ukraine via the United States has been dropped amid NATO concerns of being drawn into direct fighting with Russia.
In his remarks, Mr Zelensky accused Western governments “of being afraid to just make a decision”.
“Who is responsible for the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it Moscow again, thanks to its scare tactics? he asked.
“Our partners must step up their assistance to Ukraine,” President Zelensky said.
Meanwhile, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov confirmed that Russia used aerial cruise missiles to strike a fuel depot and defense factory in Lyiv, about 75 kilometers from the Polish border. He said another strike with sea-launched missiles destroyed a depot in Plesetske just west of Kyiv, where Ukraine has stored air defense missiles.
A smell of chemicals lingered in Lyiv on Sunday as firefighters aimed their hoses at the flames and black smoke billowed from oil storage tanks.
A security guard, Yaroslav Prokopiv, claims to have seen three rockets destroy two oil tanks.
These Russian airstrikes rocked a city that has become a haven for around 200,000 people who fled the bombed areas. Lviv, which was largely spared the bombardment, has also been a route for most of the 3.8 million refugees who have left Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24.
In his most recent video, President Zelensky angrily warns Moscow that he is sowing deep hatred for Russia among Ukrainians.
“You are doing everything so that our people themselves leave the Russian language since it will henceforth be associated with your explosions, your murders and your crimes”, affirmed Mr. Zelensky.
Along with the millions of people who fled Ukraine, the invasion drove more than 10 million people from their homes, nearly a quarter of Ukraine’s population. Thousands of civilians were reportedly killed.
As Russia’s advance on Kyiv stalled, fighting raged on the outskirts, and missile fire into the city rocked St. Sophia’s Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site 1000 years which is the heart of Ukrainian national and spiritual identity.
Vadim Kyrylenko, an engineer and top local leader pointed to the golden domes of the cathedral. He said that the top cross in the center of the church had toppled over a month before the start of World War II.
“The cross on the left fell a month before this war,” he said.