Ukraine’s foreign minister, lawmakers and mayors did not hesitate to make long journeys by car, train and plane to the Swiss Alps this week to convince world elites, gathered at the Davos forum, to send more aid to repel the Russian invasion. .
However, after five days at the World Economic Forum, which ended on Thursday, Ukrainians returned home without the heavy weapons they demanded or new sanctions against Moscow.
While no major announcement was expected at Davos, the summit gave Ukraine the opportunity to press political and business leaders face-to-face for urgent help after three months of fighting.
Ivan Fedorov, mayor of the city of Melitopol, traveled from Zaporizhzhia to Warsaw (Poland), then by plane to Zurich and again by car from Zurich to Davos, a two-day trip.
“It is very important for us [vir a Davos] because for a long time Russian propaganda and diplomacy worked very well,” Fedorov told AFP.
“Civilized countries must unite with Ukraine … not with words, but with deeds,” declared the mayor, who was detained for several days by Russian forces in March.
President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke via video conference at the start of the forum, where the Ukrainian delegation included Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir, both former heavyweight boxers.
“Usually Davos is considered a place where you just talk, but we took the opportunity to discuss and settle some issues with our counterparts,” said Chancellor Dmytro Kuleba, who traveled by train, car and plane.
– “Russian war crimes” –
The forum was also an opportunity to promote Ukraine’s candidacy to the European Union.
And Ukrainian officials and lawmakers used the occasion to meet with executives to seek help in rebuilding the country.
Another concern was the Russian blockade that prevents Ukraine, once the breadbasket of the world, from exporting its wheat to the most dependent countries.
But the main issue was Kiev’s immediate need for military aid to defeat the better-armed Russia.
Ukrainians reminded the world of the atrocities of the conflict.
After the exclusion of Russians from the forum, what had been in previous years the Russian House, a place to promote the country, was symbolically converted into the “House of Russian War Crimes”, with the walls covered with photos of atrocities attributed to the Russians. Russian forces.
Zelensky used the forum to urge the West to show more unity with Ukraine, criticizing Hungary for delaying the European Union’s embargo on Russian oil.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, speaking at the forum on the last day, said Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be allowed to dictate peace in Ukraine. “Putin must not win his war. And I am convinced: he will not win it,” he said.
A forum that for Ukrainians has been, according to Alexander Stubb, the former prime minister of Finland, a “communication exercise”.
“The West is firmly on their side, but there is always the risk of war fatigue,” Stubb told AFP, assuring the Ukrainians must apply “full pressure”.
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