Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (44) has compared his country’s struggle against the aggressor Russia to the resistance against the Nazis in World War II. Like Nazism, Russia pursues the same goals.
“The form of evil has changed, but the essence is unchanged,” Zelensky said in a video message distributed Friday evening in Kiev. Russia has gone from neighboring country to aggressor and terrorist and is guilty of war crimes.
30 Russian attacks in two days
Zelensky stood next to a downed combat drone and said peaceful cities were repeatedly bombed with bombs and missiles. In the past two days alone, there have been 30 Russian strikes with Iranian drones, 23 of which have been shot down.
Russia mines or seizes power plants, steals crops to threaten the planet with hunger. It kidnaps people, including children.
“Evil has risen”
Referring to World War II and the Ukrainians’ struggle against the Nazis, Zelensky said “evil had risen from the ashes after 80 years.” He lamented that since the war started on February 24, the aggressor Russia had fired 4,500 missiles at Ukraine and carried out a total of 8,000 air strikes.
Zelensky stressed that the Ukrainian resistance is strong. The land will not be broken. The head of state expressed confidence that the intruder would capitulate and be put on the run. Russia will also pay reparations; and the occupied territories of Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea would be free again.
“Russia’s only tactic is terror,” Zelensky said. That can only lead to defeat. In view of the power cuts caused by the devastated energy infrastructure, he said life without light is not dark, but rather without freedom. The Ukrainians would also overlook the harsh winter. “We’re not afraid of the dark,” Zelensky said.