Zelenskyy pleads to West after Odesa attack – DW – 03/03/2024

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Western countries to deliver missile defense systems and weapons to Kyiv in his nightly video address.

His address came after Russian drone debris hit an apartment block in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa, killing several people.

“Such attacks by Shahed drones have no military sense and cannot have any,” he said. “This is terrorism aimed solely at destroying lives, solely at intimidating people.”

“The world knows what can be opposed to terrorism. The world has enough missile defense systems, systems to protect against Shahed drones and missiles,” he added.

“And delaying the supply of weapons to Ukraine, missile defense systems to protect our people leads, unfortunately, to such losses, to the fact that the list of children whose lives Russia takes away constantly grows.”

“Ukraine asked for nothing more than necessary to protect lives,” he said. “When lives are lost, and partners are simply playing internal political games or disputes that limit our defense, it’s impossible to understand. It’s unacceptable. And it will be impossible to forget — the world will remember this.”

Zelenskyy’s comments come as a comprehensive US aid package for Ukraine remains stalled in the US House of Representatives.  

sdi/wd (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)