Today, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with the participation of the heads of various intelligence agencies and diplomats on the situation in and around Israel and the general situation in the Middle East. This is of fundamental importance not only for Ukraine but for the whole of Europe, he said in his evening speech.
"According to the available information – very clear – Russia is interested in fuelling a war in the Middle East so that a new source of pain and suffering would weaken world unity, add to fissions and contradictions and thus help Russia destroy freedom in Europe. We see Russian propagandists gloating. We see Moscow's Iranian friends quite openly lending a shoulder to those who attacked Israel. And all of this is a much greater threat than the world currently perceives. The world wars of the past were sparked by local aggressions," Zelenskyy said.
He stressed that Ukraine knows how to counter this threat and is preparing appropriate steps. And most importantly, it defends the need for maximum unity in the world.
"Today I addressed the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. First of all, I spoke about unity. About the fact that every state in the world now needs to choose how it will defend international law. It must defend it! And not to stand aside when terror is trying to take over, and when another region of the world may break down before our eyes," he said.
Also today, he held meetings with parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, Deputy Prime Minister Mykhaylo Fedorov, Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovyy and his team.
Zelenskyy also replaced the Commander of the Territorial Defence Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Anatoliy Barhylevych was appointed instead of Ihor Tantsyura. His main task is to ensure that the development of the Territorial Defence Forces does not stop.