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| Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Accuses Ambitions Russia of Targeting Territory From Warsaw to Sofia |
International Military - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the European Union (EU) on Wednesday (15/6/2022) to let his country embark on the path to membership of the bloc. He also warned that Russia's territorial ambitions stretched from Warsaw to Sofia.
In his speeches to both chambers of the Czech parliament via video link, Zelensky called for more EU sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. "Russia is not only interested in our Mariupol, Sievierodonetsk, Kharkiv and Kiev. No, its ambitions are directed at the vast region from Warsaw to Sofia," he said, without citing evidence for his statement.
"As in the past, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was the first step needed by the Russian leadership to pave the way to other countries, to the subjugation of other peoples," Zelensky continued, as quoted by Reuters.
The European Union has adopted six rounds of sanctions against Russia, and Ukraine is seeking a seventh round to increase pressure on Russia to end the war. The European Commission is expected to announce a decision on Ukraine's request for candidate status this week, ahead of next week's EU summit.
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Having candidate status will be the first step in the long process for accession. "Giving Ukraine candidate status now is to prove that European unification is real and that European values really work and are not just shown in certain documents," Zelensky said.
He said the Czech people after the occupation of Nazi Germany during the Second World War and the decades of Soviet domination after the war knew how compromise ended and what came from concessions to tyranny.
"People who want to take everything will never stop taking only part of what they want," Zelensky said. Russia did not immediately comment on Zelensky's remarks. Moscow calls the war in Ukraine a special military operation against the Ukrainian military and what it describes as dangerous nationalists.
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