“I think all our people will be our great army. We cannot talk about ‘Switzerland of the future’…but we will definitely become a ‘big Israel’ with its own face.”
By World Israel News Staff
Speaking to Ukrainian media Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian aggression will likely continue after the current war and therefore security and self-defense must be his country’s main priority.
“It is necessary to build a state that will be able to defend itself,” the Ukrainian president said in a media interview Tuesday.
“Even if we sign the most powerful agreement, we understand that in two years Russia may return. And if you and I accept this, then we act accordingly,” Zelensky said, as noted on his website.
“All this is being discussed at the level of advisers and leaders with France, the United States, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, Israel, and there are many friends who want to join. So far, we have not received a specific list of guarantees and a list of countries that are ready to join us 100%,” he said.
‘We need serious players’
“We do not need to have 40 countries of the world that are ready to join and fight for Ukraine under the agreement. We need serious players who are ready for anything. We need a circle of states that are ready to provide any weapons within 24 hours. We need individual countries on which sanctions policy really depends, so that these sanctions are deeply elaborated in advance. So that in the first second when we feel the threat from the Russian Federation, these states will unite and within three days introduce everything at once, block everything.”
“So far, all of these guarantors are positive about Ukraine. But this is not enough. We already had such agreements and “papers”,” he added.
The president continued:
“If we are offered to join NATO tomorrow, if they don’t play with our lives again, but seriously offer, we will join. But this will not happen, unfortunately, and did not happen. That is why we will build those security guarantees that can protect us, protect people’s lives. We can protect ourselves anyway – we already understand that. But protecting all people is a more difficult task,” he said.
“Second, I really want us not to lose hundreds of thousands of people.
“Third, there can be no discussion that we will allow someone to call Crimea someone’s territory. This is our territory, Ukrainian territory. Postponing this issue is a compromise. And Donbas for me is Ukraine.
“And the fact that Russia has recognized ORDLO as something – we must find a way out of this situation. We, as Ukraine. Preserving the status of these territories as Ukrainian is very important for us.”
‘Our people will be our great army’
Finally, “I think all our people will be our great army. We cannot talk about “Switzerland of the future” – probably, our state will be able to be like this a long time after. But we will definitely become a “big Israel” with its own face.
“We will not be surprised that we will have representatives of the Armed Forces or the National Guard in all institutions, supermarkets, cinemas, there will be people with weapons. I am sure that our security issue will be number one in the next 10 years.”