“The question is: who will be next? Moldova, or the Baltic States, or Poland? The answer is: all of them,” Zelensky stated in his speech at the Madrid summit.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky made a speech on the first day of NATO summit in Madrid on Wednesday, June 29.
Addressing NATO summit, Zelensky said they were facing a dilemma: either urgent support for Ukraine and its victory over russia, or russia's “postponed” war with the North Atlantic Alliance in future.
“The question is: who will be next for russia? Moldova, or the Baltic States or Poland? The answer is: all of them,” Zelensky said in a speech at the Madrid summit.
The President of Ukraine stated that this was why NATO should find a place for Ukraine in the common security zone. He called for more heavy artillery to be provided to Ukraine.
russia wants to enslave states that once belonged to its sphere of influence; this applies, for example, to Lithuania and all neighboring countries with russia, the head of state added.
Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that the russian government “saw the world differently.”
“For example, they look at Lithuania not as a member of your alliance, but as a republic of the Soviet Union. For us, it is an independent state, and is no more the former republic of the USSR. For us, the USSR is the past, but they consider it as a possible future,” he said in a video message.
“This is how they see it, this is how they look at every country that is russia's neighbor, at every country that was once under moscow's influence,” the Ukrainian president added.
The Ukrainian leader accused russia of “provoking famine” and, speaking of “moscow's real goal”, said that russia wanted to provoke “chaos” and “new waves of migration” to European countries. Similarly, in his opinion, russia is putting pressure on Western countries in the energy sector, seeking to make them dependent.
Volodymyr Zelensky also spoke about the need to isolate moscow until it decided to begin a negotiation process.
The President of Ukraine praised the efforts of Finland and Sweden to join NATO. He claimed that the goals of Ukraine and the North Atlantic Alliance coincided, and that Kyiv wanted security and stability on the European continent. According to him, it is now important for both sides to help Ukraine win the war.