Volodymyr Zelensky has raged at ‘fragmented’ Europe’s dithering in the face of Russian aggression in a fiery speech in Davos.
The Ukranian president accused the continent of being ‘lost’ as its ‘kaleidoscope of small and middle powers’ failed to stand up to bullying – in an echo of Donald Trump’s frequent criticism of its leaders.
The message, which stunned political and business elites gathered at the World Economic Forum, comes at a sensitive time in peace negotiations.
Trilateral talks between Ukraine, the US and Russia are set to take place in Abu Dhabi today although Nato chief Mark Rutte and Britain’s national security adviser Jonathan Powell are more cautious about chances of success than American negotiators.
Ukraine remains under ferocious attack from Vladimir Putin’s invading armies nearly four years after Moscow’s tanks rolled across the border and is going through a bitter winter of -20C temperatures starved of energy because of Russian attacks on infrastructure.
Zelensky launched into a bitter comparison of the situation with the film Groundhog Day – in which a TV weatherman is forced to repeat the same day over and over again.
‘No one would want to live like that – repeating the same thing for weeks, months and, of course, for years,’ he said. ‘And yet that’s exactly how we live now.
‘Every forum like this one proves it: just last year here in Davos I ended my speech with the words “Europe needs to know how to defend itself”. A year has passed and nothing has changed. We are still in a position where I must say the same words but why?’
He accused leaders of inaction over US threats against Greenland – and that they simply hoped it would pass – and of being too late to respond to the protests in Iran and the repressive response from the mullahs, leaving thousands ‘drowned in blood’.
Zelensky welcomed signs that the UK and France were ready to deploy their forces to enforce a hoped-for peace deal but said no security guarantees could work without the support of Trump and America.
