Wolodymyr Zelenskyj wears a black tie with a dark suit; The appearance of a state president at an international conference cannot seem more serious. The Ukrainian head of state does not want to be a part of the usual business and hustle and bustle, which also prevails in the ballroom of the Bayerischer Hof, the main stage of the Munich Security Conference. He wants to wait a while, says Selenskyj into the excited hall, “because I want to be understood from the start”. Into the silence he then states that his country, Ukraine, longs for peace, and Europe longs for peace. Russia claims it does not want to attack – “someone is lying here,” he notes.
Selenskyj begins with dignity. He tells of the children on the line of confrontation to the Separatist areas in the east who have to go to school between freshly shelled craters. He addresses Russian explosions and provocations and promises that Ukraine will not be provoked. Then he tries to draw the audience, politicians and generals from all over the world into the fate that may be threatening his country.
“brittle and obsolete”
The international security architecture has become “fragile and obsolete,” he says. the United Nations could no longer defend their own charter against the violations inflicted on them by one of the permanent members of the Security Council. A new security system must be created, the Ukrainian President demands and recalls that his country gave up all Soviet nuclear weapons 25 years ago and received a security guarantee from Russia, America and Great Britain.
Instead, however, Ukraine is still being held back eight years after the first Russian aggression, and there is still no clear willingness to allow it to join the European Union or become a member of NATO. Now Selenskyj speaks bitterly. NATO always speaks of its “open door”. But what Ukraine needs are open and honest answers. Literally, he said: “We need honest answers.” And he says clearly that his country does not want to be “the buffer between Russia and the West” forever. The Chinese foreign minister had just played such a role Wang Yi suggested to the Munich security policy audience that Ukraine could see itself as a “bridge” between Russia and the West.
Zelenskyy’s appearance at the conference is just one facet of a wide-ranging diplomatic effort by Kiev. A veritable diplomatic airlift was set up between Kiev and Munich to demand solidarity from the assembled Western diplomatic and political elite. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also flew to Munich, as did the Ukrainian Defense Minister and the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Army. On Saturday afternoon, a dozen European foreign ministers, American senators and members of parliament from numerous parliaments gathered at a “Ukraine dinner” for a discussion at the Lenbach House, which became a kind of solidarity event for the country.
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