In Ukraine, there is not a conflict, but a war. Russia has mined fields and forests, the counter-offensive cannot advance fast enough. Trench warfare without ammunition cannot be fought. Diplomacy doesn’t work when Russia seizes a nuclear plant, shuts it down and causes an energy crisis, as it does with food, blocking the Black Sea and Ukraine’s grain exports. The UN has grabbed the head. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commented on this on Thursday during his visit to Bulgaria. Part of his words came during a meeting in the early aftermath with his Bulgarian colleague Rumen Radev, who is against the provision of military aid from Bulgaria to Ukraine. Another part of Zelensky’s words were said during a meeting later with members of the public and journalists at the National History Museum in Boyana.
Zelensky’s meeting with Radev lasted a little more than 30 minutes, in contrast to his almost three-hour conversation with Prime Minister Mykola Denkov, at whose invitation the Ukrainian president is in our country for less than a day, and Deputy Prime Minister Maria Gabriel.
In this short time, Zelensky, humanely with emotional words, refuted all those of President Rumen Radev, with which he defended his position that Bulgaria should not provide military aid to Ukraine.
And at his meeting with the Bulgarian president, similarly to the one at the Council of Ministers, Zelensky thanked Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people for their help.
“I am thankful that the people of Bulgaria sheltered a large number of Ukrainians. Bulgarians know that this is not a conflict, but a war. People are fleeing a war that is exclusively on our land. We know very precisely that this is not a conflict.”Zelensky said after Radev complained of conflict several times.
“The point is that Putin is not just waging war on us. He won’t rest until he kills us. You cannot negotiate with him“, the Ukrainian president also said.
It’s good to help defend so the war doesn’t come to you
“I want to tell you that everything you have will not be enough to fight the Russian air force if it comes here. It is not because your army is weak. You have a powerful army. Your people are good. A powerful army means above all people, but it would not be enough to go to war, so it is good to let the people defend themselves, so that the war does not come to you, to the Poles, to the Romanians. War has no distance and you as commander in chief will understand me. God forbid some tragedy happens and you are in my place and people who share common values don’t help you with weapons. What will you do then? You will say: Putin, take Bulgarian territories. No, you, as a real president, I am sure that you will not allow a compromise with your country, with sovereignty”Zelensky stated after Radev told him that does not accept the provision of ammunition to Ukraine.
“From the very first day I denounced aggression against your country and war as a means of solving problems. Already in the first months, Bulgaria lent a hand to Ukrainian citizens who were looking for salvation from the conflict that broke out.” Radev said.
“You just signed a document. This declaration is an important step in the developed, but I do not accept the provision of ammunition, especially from the reserves of Bulgaria. Because I, as president and commander-in-chief, have my responsibilities. The security environment is alarming enough in our region as well, and even more alarming for all of us is that the conflict is expanding its spatial scope, taking on new dimensions. The fighting became more and more fierce, more and more people died, including Bulgarians from the large Bulgarian community in Ukraine. This is a sensitive topic, as is what is happening at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. And with every passing day, the risk to security and peace in Europe grows”said the Bulgarian president.
Radev also expressed concern that the risk to security and peace in Europe is growing every day.
“Every day the risk to security and peace in Europe grows, including the risk of radioactive contamination”, the Bulgarian head of state also said. According to him, the conflict is turning into a war of attrition and represents a global economic clash that also exacerbates social tensions.
“I continue to maintain that this conflict has no military solution”, added Radev. He believes that more and more weapons hardly lead to such a decision.
Regarding the accelerated European integration of Ukraine in the European Union (EU), Radev stated that it was supported in his person. The Bulgarian president emphasized that Ukraine has its place in the EU. He said that one should think about Ukraine, but also about how this war affects Europe in the future, because Europe’s help, in his words, will be extremely important for the recovery of Ukraine.
“At the moment we hear the word “victory”, but we would like to hear more the word “peace” and that the leading efforts should be to achieve peace”, Radev also stated and added that, in his opinion, not all means of diplomacy have been used to resolve of the conflict.
About Zaporozhye NPP
“What more diplomacy shall we use?”Zelensky asked in response and gave the example of the Zaporizhzhia NPP – a topic on which the “UN communicates with Russia”, Ukrainian technical personnel work there, and Kiev calls for demilitarization.
“The occupation of the Zaporizhzhia NPP is also not a ‘conflict’. It is a war for the exhaustion of Ukraine, for the slaughter of Ukrainians, not to citizens of other countries. The Russians seized the headquarters to provoke a crisis… What more diplomatic efforts? We have enabled the International Atomic Energy Agency to communicate directly with Russia because these are mentally unstable people, but they also cannot negotiate with Russia, the UN cannot negotiate with Russia” added Zelensky.
His other example was about the grain initiative. Zelensky pointed out that Turkey and the UN communicate with the Russians. Every day, Russia is figuring out how to make the queue of ships grow bigger and grain doesn’t go, we don’t control this corridor, Zelensky also pointed out. Russia seized it, seized our territorial waters, he added.
I am here because of the shortage of weapons, of time, of electricity
I am here because of the shortage of weapons, time, and electricity, Zelensky later told members of the public.
According to him, the power of Ukraine’s counteroffensive is limited because the country does not receive enough military aid and this prevents the end of the war. “You can’t stay in the trenches for a year and wait for ammunition. This is demotivating, we shouldn’t lose the initiative on the battlefield”he said.
The Ukrainian president spoke casually to journalists and members of the public. BGNES
“We started to create a powerful air shield, which can grow into a European one, and we proved that Russia has no missiles that cannot be shot down. Putin is already experiencing humiliation. We saw that Prigozhin or Kadyrov can enter Moscow if they want. Moscow’s soldiers are demotivated to fight for a weak and inadequate tsar and we need to step up the pressure, get more military support and push out Russian troops. This gives us more freedom for a normal life. Thanks for being on the bright side. Putin’s entourage is weakening and the ambitions of the Russian regime will not be justified”Putin said.
According to him, the claims that giving military aid to Ukraine will prolong the war are absurd.
“This winter we ran out of electricity. In Europe, the shortage of electricity was felt in the price, but it makes no sense when there is no electricity and in hospitals the equipment shuts down and people die because they cannot be resuscitated. When there is no electricity, there is no water – no water supply and treatment works”Zelensky commented on the previously signed energy cooperation agreement.
Putin is causing the energy and food crisis
According to him, representatives of the Bulgarian authorities are mistaken in thinking that the war will cause an energy and food deficit – this is what Putin is doing.
“They cannot occupy our fleet in Odessa, but they block the Black Sea and the goal is to cause an artificial famine, because we in Ukraine have millions of tons of grain production, which even our farmers were ready to give away to Africa to secure the new campaign . How to sow new wheat when their warehouses are full, where will they store the new. It was not the war that caused the shortage and famine, but the solution planned and developed by Russia.”Zelensky said in Boyana.
“Even during the war, we produced cheap electricity, but they seized the Zaporizhia NPP, which is a third of the country’s capacity. They turned it off and caused a deficit in Europe as well“, the Ukrainian head of state also said,
Regarding the exchange of remarks with Radev regarding the arms support, Zelensky said that it was a matter of different points of view. “He thinks it would mean escalation, I think it’s protection. I will not criticize the president, I am your guest and I respect the country, all your institutions and leaders. He, as the supreme commander, said that it cannot be allowed to reduce the armament of the Bulgarian army, and this is the reason why he did not support Ukraine. And I told him that if we fall and Russia advances, your weapon will be of no avail. I do not want to humiliate anyone, I do not underestimate the Bulgarian army, but the logic more or less in the warehouses does not work. The number of shells from Bulgaria is a great help, thank you very much, but it is for five days”Zelensky also said through the public.
2023-07-06 16:21:52
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