The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, asked this Monday (23), in participation by videoconference at the Davos Forum (which will be held again after two years), the total withdrawal of foreign companies from Russia and invited them to participate in the reconstruction of his country in the post-war period.
Zelensky called for Russia to be targeted with what he called “compelling sanctions” such as “on oil, blockade of all banks without exception, complete withdrawal of foreign companies from the Russian market.”
“We offer (companies) to continue operating in Ukraine, a market of 40 million people. I invite you to be part of the country’s reconstruction process, a great task. We must rebuild entire cities,” Zelensky told an exclusive audience of political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland.
The Ukrainian leader called for decisive action from the international community to create a precedent that “prevents any other aggressor from wanting to use brute force against their neighbour.”
While he was grateful for the international help Ukraine has received so far, Zelensky stressed that it is still not enough.
“There are no more peaceful cities, but ruins. And instead of tourism, bombs and missiles. This is the result if we continue as we are,” she warned.
“It is important to do it as quickly as possible, with weapons, with sanctions. That’s why Ukraine needs all those weapons we’re asking for, not just the ones we’re giving away. And that’s why Ukraine needs funding, at least $5 billion a month,” he declared.
Zelensky said Ukraine had set several precedents, “the first being to show courage” against Russian aggression, and the other “to unite the whole world.”
On the other hand, the Ukrainian president regretted that this union and pressure against Russia did not start in 2014, when there was the annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the war in the Donbas region.
“If this had happened at the time, the unity and pressure of governments and companies, perhaps Russia would not have started this large-scale war, and so many lives would not have been lost,” he argued.
Zelensky commented that Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea “are completely blocked” and that Russian forces “are stealing our wheat day after day”, preventing the export of grain.
He emphasized the need to create a corridor to allow the export of grain and said he had talked about it with foreign leaders, including the Baltic countries.
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