Globaltellblog Always More to Read…
Related Articles
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top aide pleaded for more support from the West to fend off Russia’s attacks and warned that Vladimir Putin would ‘go for blood beyond Ukraine’ if its allies don’t do more to stop him.
‘This war could be a prologue to a greater European or even global massacre,’ Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, wrote in a New York Times guest essay that he penned from a bunker in the capitol beside President Zelensky.
He wrote as officials in MariupoL said a ‘full-scale genocide’ was underway after Putin’s men unleashed a 15-hour artillery barrage, and a day after Russian strike targeted a TV tower in Kyiv and damaged the nearby Babi Yar Holocaust memorial.
‘Not since the end of World War II has Europe seen violence and naked territorial ambition at such a scale,’ Yermak wrote, begging Ukraine’s Western allies to pay attention to the ‘existential challenge’ Putin ‘poses to the world order.’
Ukraine has precipitated the severity of his aggression since it began in 2014. ‘That’s because we know this war is not just about Ukraine. The Kremlin wants to create a new Russian empire,’ Yermak added.
‘Again, make no mistake: Mr. Putin aims to advance this ideology by going for blood beyond Ukraine. He must be stopped.’
Yermak pleaded for Ukraine’s allies to send it more firepower, including antitank and antiaircraft weapons, and called on NATO to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
He also asked for tougher sanctions in the form of a full embargo on all Russian exports, including oil, to the U.S. and Europe.
The president’s top aide expressed gratitude for the weapons and equipment its allies have already provided and the sanctions they have imposed against Russia, but said Ukraine needs more support and wrote: ‘our state’s future and survival largely depend on the West.’
‘This war could be a prologue to a greater European or even global massacre,’ Yermak added.
Zelensky and President Joe Biden spoke on Tuesday, during which the Ukrainian president appealed for more security, military and humanitarian assistance. Yermak outlined what his country needs to fend off Putin’s invasion, as a convoy of Russian troops 40 miles long encroaches on Kyiv.
‘Ukraine is not asking for its allies to put boots on the ground,’ he wrote. ‘But we need the West to back us up in order to keep defending our families and our land. We need to show Russia — in painful terms the mistake it has made.’
Yermak asked for more ammunition, antitank and antiaircraft weapons, and called on NATO to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
‘We recognize that this would be a serious escalation in the war and that it could bring NATO into direct conflict with Russia,’ he wrote. ‘But we firmly believe that Russia won’t stop at just Ukraine, which would potentially drag NATO into this conflict anyway.’
When it comes to sanctions, Yermak called for every Russian bank to be cut off from the SWIFT banking system and for every Russian oligarch to be sanctioned. He also called for a full embargo on all Russian exports, including oil, to the U.S. and Europe.
‘These measures would not be without cost to the world economy, but the alternative is far worse,’ he wrote.
He made a plea for the international community to expel Russia from the United Nations or, ‘at the very least,’ excluded from the U.N. Security Council, where it has authority to veto.
Yermak invoked Article 4 of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, in which the U.S., U.K. and Russia agreed to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine and demand ‘immediate’ assistance from the U.N. Security Council should the country face a nuclear threat.
‘Just because the aggressor — Russia — vetoes U.N. Security Council action does not relieve the other parties of the promises they made to Ukraine,’ Yermak said.
Despite the grim outlook, Yermak lauded the resilience of the Ukrainian people in defending their county and community.
‘Russian forces are experiencing fierce resistance from both the Armed Forces of Ukraine and from Ukrainian citizens hurling homemade Molotov cocktails that Ukraine’s government is encouraging them to make,’ he wrote.
Yermak also cited the U.S. Pentagon’s reports that Russian soldiers have been surrendering or sabotaging their own vehicles and efforts to avoid fighting. ‘They must know this war is unjust,’ he wrote.
Yermak echoed a tweet President Zelensky posted on Tuesday following the attack on Babi Yar, where Nazi occupiers killed more than 33,000 Jews over two days in 1941.
‘To the world: what is the point of saying «never again» for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating…,’ President Zelensky tweeted.
Yermak concluded his essay with a final plea. ‘Standing with us today and helping us is the only way to achieve peace for all and ensure that history does not repeat itself — so that our future does not echo Europe’s darkest time,’ he wrote.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced Wednesday it will delay its test of intercontinental Minuteman III ballistic missiles scheduled for this weekend in the midst of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine so he does not ‘misunderstand’ the move.
Defense Department Spokesperson John Kirby said the move is a show of ‘restraint’ after the Russian leader put his country’s nuclear forces on high alert and continues his assault on Ukraine.
‘This is not a step backwards in our readiness,’ he assured during his press briefing Wednesday.
Kirby said at the top of the event: ‘I often come out here and tell you what we have done both in terms of exercises and operations. Today, I want to talk a little bit about something that we’re not going to do, and I want to explain why.’
