Volodymyr Zelenskey calls for more Russia sanctions, invokes Greek battle cry
April 7, 2022, 6:17 pm

Volodymyr Zelenskey calls for more Russia sanctions, invokes Greek battle cry

Ukraine's president urges Europe to take a stronger stand against Russia (File photo: Volodymyr Zelenskiy official Facebook page)

Reuters reported, Ukraine's president urged Europe to take a stronger stand against Russia in a video address to Greece's parliament on Thursday (Apr 7) that invoked the battle cry of 19th century Greek patriots in the Black Sea port of Odesa.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Mariupol, another port on Ukraine's coast where thousands of ethic Greeks live, had been "reduced to ashes" since Russia's invasion, and called for more humanitarian aid and efforts to evacuate those wounded.

"This is a matter of honour for Europeans to answer," he said through an interpreter, in a speech that won him a standing ovation in the Athens parliament.

The six-week-old war has forced more than 4 million people to flee Ukraine, destroyed cities and prompted a slew of Western restrictions on Russian elites and the economy.

I am grateful to Greece for the humanitarian and defense support already provided to Ukraine. I am grateful for the support of the general sanctions policy of the democratic world. But the war continues. The destruction of Mariupol continues. You have heard these heroes. The deportation of people from the territories where Russian troops came continues. I urge you to use the influence of your state and your opportunities, as a member of the European Union, to organize the rescue of Mariupol. I urge you to do more to make Russia seek peace and even give up its dreams of conquering Ukraine.
Posted by Володимир Зеленський on Thursday, April 7, 2022

Russia has denied targeting civilians and said Ukraine and its Western backers are gripped by discriminatory anti-Russian paranoia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on what he calls a "special military operation" to demilitarise and "denazify" the country. Ukraine and the West say Putin launched an unprovoked war of aggression.

On Thursday, Zelenskiy said Moscow was deliberately trying to ensure that Europeans were left without affordable energy, to provoke inflation and to artificially create a food supply crisis.

Volodymyr Zelensky urges the world to protest against Russian invasion of Ukraine

Zelenskiy said: "No Russian bank has the right to earn money in the financial system."

He added: "They need to be blocked - all of them must be blocked, not only some of them - while this senseless, brutal war goes on - and no Russian ship should have the possibility of entering any port in the democratic world."

Ukraine tells its people to flee homes in the east before Russia attacks

"Freedom or Death," he said during the address, citing the battle cry of the Greek revolutionary society "Filiki Eteria", which was founded by merchants in Odesa in 1814 to free Greece from its Ottoman rulers.

He added, in a reference to Mariupol: "I call on you now openly to create such a union of friends which will be able to save Ukrainians and Greeks in the south of Ukraine."

President Zelensky: 'My heart breaks' after Mariupol theatre bombing

Its foreign minister said on Thursday (Apr 7), Greece will ask the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged war crimes in Mariupol.

Source: reuters

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Upon arriving to participate in the summit of the European Political Community, which includes around forty heads of state in Budapest, he said, "I look forward to sitting with the elected U.S. president and seeing how we will collectively ensure we meet challenges, including the threats from Russia and North Korea." He also noted that the strengthening of ties between Russia and North Korea poses a threat to the United States as well, according to reports from Agence France-Presse.

Before Trump's victory, Rutte expressed confidence that a united Washington would remain part of the defensive alliance, even if Trump became the 47th president of the United States. In an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF last Monday night, he stated that both Republicans and Democrats understand that NATO serves not only the security of Europe but also that of America. He added that both candidates are aware that the security of the United States is closely tied to NATO.

On Wednesday, NATO congratulated Trump on his victory but did not address the Ukrainian issue.

It is noteworthy that the relationship between the elected U.S. president and the defense alliance was not the best during his first term in the White House. Trump criticized NATO member states multiple times and even hinted at withdrawing from the alliance unless they increased their financial contributions.

Additionally, the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war is one of the matters that complicate relations between the two sides, especially since Trump has repeatedly stated that he can end this ongoing conflict, which began in 2022, quickly. He implied that he had a peace plan between Kyiv and Moscow, while his vice president, JD Vance, revealed aspects of that plan, which stipulated Ukraine's commitment not to join NATO, thereby sending reassuring signals to the Russians.

Furthermore, many NATO member states in Europe fear that Trump might halt military aid to Ukraine after he previously criticized the U.S. for pouring funds into supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.