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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Tuesday that Russia could invade another country and denounced again that it is using Belarusian soil to launch missiles against his nation.
“No one can rule out a new Russian invasion of another neighboring country. Such an eventuality is possible,” Zelensky warned in an Internet address at the start of The Economist’s annual conference near Athens.
The Ukrainian leader stressed that Russia is looking for “space” to apply new anti-democratic tactics and recalled that already in 2014 (with the invasion of Crimea) it avoided giving security guarantees through dialogue.
For that reason, he added, Europe needs more security and solidarity than ever.
Proof of its belligerent intentions is the fact that Russia is launching missiles “of various calibers” from Belarusian territory, something about which Zelensky left no room for doubt.
In this context, the Ukrainian president appealed to Belarus not to allow itself to be involved in the conflict, because, he said, although the decision to launch attacks wasn’t made by the Belarusian people or its leadership, it cannot disengage from it.
“Provocations of this kind will continue, Russia is doing it on purpose, and we are prepared for it,” he added.
Referring to the economic consequences the war in Ukraine is having, Zelensky claimed that Russia is trying to create an inflationary crisis in Europe in order to break its unity.
“Europe has to become completely independent of Russia, and that is possible,” maintained the Ukrainian head of state for whom there is no doubt that the cost of living crisis or mass migration that Europe is suffering now are all consequences of dependence on Russia in the past.
“If all sanctions are applied one hundred percent without exceptions, it will be hard for the international community, but even harder for Russia, which will be forced to stop this war,” he estimated.
The Economist conference in Lagonissi, on the outskirts of Athens, this year is named “Antitheses, Transformations, Achievements in a Changing World” and brings together representatives of politics, economics and society.
