His words, spoken in front of French parliamentarians, are unlikely to change the course of the war. Nevertheless, and as with every intervention before Western democracies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky knows how to find formulas that hit the mark, in order to urge them to act against Russia.
This Wednesday, March 23, the leader of the besieged nation thus called on the deputies and senators gathered to put an end to this war “against freedom, equality and fraternity”, taking up the motto of the French Republic. Here is what to remember from his fifteen-minute speech.
- Mariupol, this new “Verdun”
At the very beginning of his video intervention, Volodymyr Zelensky returned at length to the bombings that Ukraine has been subjected to for several weeks. And more particularly those affecting the city of Mariupol, in the south of the country, surrounded by Russian forces, and in which 100,000 people are still stranded. The Ukrainian president deplored the violent attack on a maternity hospital, and compared these strikes to those that fell on the battlefield of Verdun, France, during the First World War.
Volodymyr Zelensky also called for a minute’s silence for the thousands of Ukrainians “who were killed as a result of the Russian invasion”.
- A call for French “leadership”
Volodymyr Zelensky hailed Emmanuel Macron’s “leadership” in this conflict, and more broadly expressed his gratitude to France. But also reminded, implicitly, that these efforts remained insufficient. “We expect France to help us restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” reaffirmed the Ukrainian president to parliamentarians. It must put an end to this “war against liberty, equality and fraternity”.
The man, khaki T-shirt on his shoulders, finally reiterated his wish to eventually join the European Union. “The end of the war is in your hands,” he said.
- New pressure on French companies in Russia
Finally, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the French companies established in Russia to stop supporting the Russian “war machine” and to leave this country, citing Renault, Auchan and Leroy Merlin. “They must stop sponsoring the Russian war machine. They must stop financing the murder of women’s children, rapes. Values are worth more than profits,” he said. Employees of the Ukrainian branch of Leroy Merlin had already asked the brand on Monday March 21 to cease its activities in Russia after the bombing of a group store in kyiv.