President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the NATO summit. He once again called for providing the state with the necessary weapons to win the war unleashed by Russia.
The NATO summit is being held in Brussels. The Ukrainian President had the floor online.
He said that Russia fired more than a thousand different missiles against Ukrainian cities during the month of the war and fired hundreds of airstrikes. From the first day of the full-scale invasion, the President appealed to the Alliance with an explicit, logical request to help close the sky over Ukraine.
"The Ukrainian army has been resisting for a month in unequal conditions! And I have been repeating the same thing for a month. To save people and our cities, Ukraine needs military assistance without restrictions. As without restrictions, russia is using its entire arsenal against us ... Ukraine appealed to you for planes in order not lose so many people. And you have thousands of fighter planes! But so far we have not been given any ", Zelenskyy emphasized.
Ukraine also asked for tanks to unblock our perishing cities Mariupol, Berdyansk, Melitopol, and others. Cities where russia is holding hundreds of thousands of civilians hostage and creates artificial famine.
"You have at least 20,000 tanks! Ukraine has asked for a percentage. One percent of all your tanks! Please give it to us or sell it to us. But we don't have a clear answer yet. The worst thing during the war is not having clear answers to our demands for help," remarked the President.
He added that Ukraine never wanted this war. And does not want to fight for years.
"We want to save our people. We want to survive! Just to survive! Like any nation, we have the right to this. The right to life. The right to this one percent," he said.
Addressing the Alliance, the President added that he did not blame NATO. It is not NATO missiles and bombs that destroy our cities. He said Russia had used banned phosphorus bombs again this morning. Adults and children were killed again.
"I just want you to know: the Alliance can still prevent the deaths of Ukrainians from Russian strikes, from Russian occupation. By giving us all the weapons we need. Yes, we are not in the Alliance. And I do not make these claims. But Ukrainians never thought that the Alliance and the Allies were different things," he said.
The President expressed his conviction that Russia will not stay in Ukraine. It wants to move forward, to go against the eastern members of NATO, the Baltic states, Poland.
"Will NATO then stop thinking about it, worrying about how Russia will react? Who can be sure of that? And do you have confidence that Article 5 could work? "Budapest" has not worked for us. Our Budapest memorandum. It did not work for peace in Ukraine," he said.
Your Alliance must be powerful. Because if we are wrong, the world is safe. But if we are not at least one percent right, I ask you to reconsider your attitude. Your own assessments. And really take care of security in Europe and, therefore, the world. You can give us one percent of all your planes. One percent of all your tanks. One percent! We can't just buy it. Such a supply depends only on NATO's decision, political, by the way, decisions ", the Head of state told.
It is impossible to survive such a war without the multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), anti-ship weapons, and air defense.
"So, when we have this, it will give us, just like you, one hundred percent security. And we need one. And the only thing I demand from you ... After such a month of the war. This is a request for the sake of our military. After such a war against Russia ... More, please, never, never tell us that our army does not meet NATO standards. We have shown what our standards are capable of and how much we can give to common security in Europe and the world. We can do a lot to protect against aggression against everything we value. What you value," he said.
He believes that now it is NATO's turn to show what the Alliance can do to save people, to show that it is indeed the most powerful defense alliance in the world.
Ukraine expects real security guarantees from those whose word is credible.
"All proposals are on the table. Our needs are on the table. We need peace immediately. The answers are up to you," Volodymyr Zelenskyy concluded.
Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine has been going on for a month. From the very first day, the authorities have called on Western partners to help close the sky against Russian planes and missiles that kill civilians and destroy homes.
NATO does not approve the decision to close the airspace on its own forces, arguing that they do not want to send their pilots and other specialists to the war against Russia. That is why Ukraine calls for the provision of the necessary aircraft and defensive weapons so that our defenders can cover the sky on their own.
Authorities not only asked Western countries for help but also found the necessary means of missile defense. The state independently found pilots for aircraft for which there were no specialists and independently found aircraft for which there were pilots. Foreigners are ready to fight on the side of Ukraine in the sky, but the people on whom the decision depends are not prepared to make it.