Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has compared his country’s struggle against the aggressor Russia with resistance against the Nazis in World War II. Like Nazism, Russia is pursuing the same goals. “The form of evil has changed, but the essence is unchanged,” said Zelenskyj in a video message distributed in Kyiv on Friday night. Russia has gone from being a neighbor to an aggressor and a terrorist – and is guilty of war crimes.
Standing next to a shot down combat drone, Zelenskyy said that peaceful cities were repeatedly being bombarded with bombs and rockets. In the past two days alone, there have been 30 Russian attacks with Iranian drones, 23 of which have been shot down. Russia mines or seizes power plants, steals crops to threaten the planet with hunger. It abducts people, including children.
Referring to World War II and the Ukrainians’ struggle against the Nazis, Zelenskyy said that “evil had risen from the ashes again after 80 years”. He lamented that since the war began on February 24, the aggressor Russia had fired 4,500 rockets at Ukraine and carried out a total of 8,000 airstrikes.
Zelenskyy emphasized that the Ukrainian resistance is strong. The country will not be broken. The head of state expressed confidence that the invader would capitulate and be put to flight. Russia will also pay reparations; and the occupied territories of Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea would be free again.
“Russia’s only tactic is terror,” said Zelenskyy. That can only lead to defeat. In view of the power cuts as a result of the destroyed energy infrastructure, he said that life without light is not dark, but rather without freedom. The Ukrainians would also survive the harsh winter. “We are not afraid of the dark,” Zelenskyj said.
According to the State Department in Moscow, Russia has asked the United Nations to conduct an investigation into US “military-biological activities” in Ukraine. The ministry said Thursday that during the “special military operation” in Ukraine, “evidence and materials were secured that shed light on the true nature of US military-biological activities on Ukrainian territory.” The UN ambassadors from the USA and Ukraine rejected the allegations shortly afterwards.
Russia submitted the complaint with a draft resolution to the Security Council and put together a 310-page document that AFP news agency was able to see. The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, rejected the allegations at the Security Council. “We all know that these claims are pure fabrications made without any evidence whatsoever,” she said.
Thomas-Greenfield said neither Ukraine nor the US had a biological weapons program. Deputy Ambassador of Ukraine to the UN Christina Hayovyshyn said her country does not have the infrastructure to develop and produce such weapons.
According to the EU Commission, Russian business people are still active in Europe to a considerable extent. According to a recent study, there are nearly 31,000 companies in Europe that are beneficially owned by Russia, according to a new report on money laundering and terrorist financing risks. They are mainly active in the real estate, construction and hotel sectors as well as in the financial and energy sectors.
In the report to the Council of Member States and the European Parliament, the Commission assesses the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in the EU. A section on Russia’s war against Ukraine states that proper implementation of EU asset freeze measures requires effective enforcement of beneficial ownership transparency rules.
In addition, the authority advocates, among other things, a better exchange of information and an “appropriate” disclosure and monitoring of assets that are hidden from the tax authorities.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) intends to send an observer mission to Ukraine this week following accusations from Russia that Kyiv is planning to use a “dirty” bomb in the war. That said IAEA chief Rafael Gross, according to a statement.
Experts from the organization will carry out inspections at two locations in Ukraine this week after the Ukrainian government wrote to request teams of inspectors to be sent. Russian President Vladimir Putin had also spoken out in favor of sending an IAEA observer mission to Ukraine as soon as possible.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia has flown more than 8,000 airstrikes and fired 4,500 rockets. According to him, the capital Kyiv has fended off 23 drones in the last two days.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asserted in his daily video address that widespread Russian attacks on power plants would not break the Ukrainian spirit. Standing in the dark next to a downed drone during the address, he continued: “Hearing the enemy’s national anthem in our country scares us more than hearing the enemy’s missiles in our skies. We are not afraid of the dark.”
After more than eight months of war against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed his readiness for peace negotiations. However, under the influence of the United States, the government in Ukraine decided against such talks, Putin said at a Moscow discussion forum with international experts. At the end of September, the head of the Kremlin annexed four Ukrainian regions and also offered negotiations in a speech in the Kremlin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected talks with Putin by decree.
Referring to the February 24 raid on the country that he ordered, Putin said Ukraine is fighting without regard for its soldiers and is suffering significantly higher casualties than Russia. Losses cannot be checked independently, but experts assume that Russia may have lost tens of thousands of soldiers. Regarding the reasons for the war, Putin said once again that Ukraine’s aspirations to NATO are incompatible with Russian security interests. At the time, Ukraine also canceled a peace plan for the Donbass that had been agreed with Germany and France.
Putin made it clear that he also sees his war in the neighboring country as a fight against an “aggressive West” that is trying to impose its rules and liberal values on others. The “tectonic changes” in Ukraine showed that the supremacy sought by the US in a monopolar world was a thing of the past.
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