President Volodymyr Zelensky turned to his Twitter feed to ask the West for additional weapons to stop what is becoming “an endless bloodbath” that is “spreading misery, suffering and destruction.”
In a two-minute video speaking in English, Ukraine’s second war-time president said that “nobody will stop Russia except Ukraine with heavy weapons.”
It was in reference to Kremlin despot Vladimir Putin issuing orders on Feb. 24 for a renewed invasion of the neighboring country.
Zelensky said so far Ukraine has stopped the multi-pronged assault because “Russia didn’t know how much we cherished our freedom.”
Although Ukraine has inflicted heavy losses in manpower and materiel on Russia, he said, “Russia still has the capacity to attack and not only Ukraine.”
Zelensky warned that if Ukraine is conquered, Moscow’s next targets would be neighboring Romania, Moldova, Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.
He emphasized that Russia’s “real intentions” are to commit war crimes and intimated the invasion’s purpose is to destroy the nation.
Requests were made for heavy artillery, armored vehicles, air-defense systems and combat aircraft “to repel Russian forces and stop their war crimes…it must be done now.”
Specifically, Zelensky said the military needs 155-millimeter artillery installations, multiple-launch rocket systems, armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, T-72 tanks or their analogues, and S-300, Buk or Western-equivalent air-defense systems.
“And military aircraft to unblock cities and save millions of Ukrainian and European lives,” he added.
He concluded the plea by saying, “freedom must be armed better than tyranny. Arm Ukraine now to defend freedom.”
