kyiv. The Ukrainian leader yesterday made an emotional appeal to US lawmakers to get more international help against Russia, which ensures that his offensive is a “success” and the economic war of Western countries against them failed.
In a historic virtual address to Congress, where he received a standing ovation, President Volodymyr Zelensky again called on the United States and its NATO allies for a no-fly zone over Ukraine to protect it from Russian attacks.
“I need your decision, your help.” “Is it too much to ask, to create a no-fly zone over Ukraine, to save people?” she said, citing Martin Luther-King’s famous “I had a dream” speech.
Showing a video of the destruction caused by Russian strikes, Zelensky compared the Russian offensive to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and the attack by Japanese aircraft on the Pearl Harbor base in 1941.
Addressing his American counterpart, Joe Biden, in English, he told him that leading the free world also means being the “leader of peace.”
“war criminal”
Yesterday Biden confirmed additional military aid of 800 million dollars to Ukraine. The aid “includes 800 anti-aircraft systems to ensure that the Ukrainian military can continue to stop the planes and helicopters that have been attacking its people,” Biden said.
The American called his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a “war criminal.”
“I think (Putin) is a war criminal,” Biden responded to a reporter who questioned him at the White House.
The Russian reply was immediate.
“We find such rhetoric by the head of a state whose bombs have killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world unacceptable and inexcusable,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov said.
“Biological weapons in Ukraine”
Russian President Vladimir Putin assured in a televised government meeting that the operation is being carried out “successfully” and compared the action of Western countries to the persecution of Jews.
“The West has dropped the mask of decency and started to act hatefully. Parallels are drawn with anti-Semitic pogroms,” President Putin said, reiterating no intention to “occupy” Ukraine.
Putin promised financial aid to individuals and companies to face the punitive measures and assured that the economic “blitzkrieg” against his country “failed”.
Once again, the president considered that he had no options against Ukraine. “We simply had no options to solve the problem peacefully,” he said, stressing that he had “reasons to believe” that “biological weapons components” were being developed on Ukrainian territory.