‘Come to your squares, make yourselves visible and heard, say that people matter’: Zelensky urges millions around the world to take to the streets and protest against Putin’s invasion to mark one month since it began
- Zelensky gave a a passionate speech on the eve of a one-month anniversary
- He urged people around the globe ‘to stand against the war starting March 24
- Hundreds of civilians have been killed, hundreds more injured and over three million Ukrainians have fled their country since Russia invaded its neighbour
- Russia is now bogged down in a grinding military campaign, and in the absence of significant military advances is resorting to medieval shelling tactics
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday urged citizens around the world to take to the streets to protest Russia’s invasion of his country.
‘Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life,’ Zelensky said in a video address in English. ‘Come to your squares, to your streets, make yourselves visible and heard.’
In a passionate speech on the eve of a one-month anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Zelensky urged people around the globe ‘to stand against the war starting from March 24… and after then’ to speak up against Russia’s bloody war.
‘Show your standing, come from your offices, your homes, your schools and your universities, come in the name of peace,’ Zelensky said.
‘Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters. From March 24 in downtowns of your cities, all as one together who want to stop the war.’
Hundreds of civilians have been killed, hundreds more injured and over three million Ukrainians have fled their country since Russia invaded its neighbour on February 24 with the goal of thwarting its pro-Western course.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday urged citizens around the world to take to the streets to protest Russia’s invasion of his country in a passionate video (pictured)
When Russia unleashed its invasion on February 24 in Europe’s biggest offensive since the Second World War, a swift toppling of Ukraine’s democratically elected government seemed likely.
But with Wednesday marking four full weeks of fighting, Russia is now bogged down in a grinding military campaign.
With its ground forces repeatedly slowed or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with Western-supplied weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to ruins in Syria and Chechnya.
NATO estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the four weeks of war, where ferocious fighting by the country’s fast-moving defenders has denied Moscow the lightning victory it sought.
By comparison, Moscow lost about 15,000 soldiers in Afghanistan over 10 years.
Despite showing little sign of further Russian advancement, the Kremlin has not shown much sign of backing down on the demands it is asking for in order to withdraw its troops.
Zelensky has offered to meet Putin in person – which he has so-far declined.
‘The War of Russia is not only the war against Ukraine, its meaning is much wider. Russia started the war against freedom as it is,’ the Ukrainian president said in his address on Wednesday night.
Pictured: Activists and young Ukrainians demonstrate with a giant peace sign and ‘Stop Putin’s oil’ in front of the Jusutus Lispsius; the EU Council building and the Berlaymont, the EU Commission building on March 22, 2022
‘This is only the beginning for Russia on the Ukrainian land. Russia is trying to defeat the freedom of all people in Europe – of all the people in the world. It tries to show that only crude and cruel force matters.
‘It tries to show that people do not matter as well as everything else, that make us people. That’s the reason we all must stop Russia. The world must stop the war.
I thank everyone who acts in support of Ukraine in support of freedom. But the war continues. The acts of terror against peaceful people go on.
‘One month already. That long. It breaks my heart. Hearts of all Ukrainians and every free person on the planet,’ he said.
Addressing Japan’s parliament on Wednesday, Zelensky said four weeks of war have killed thousands of his people, including at least 121 children.
‘Our people cannot even adequately bury their murdered relatives, friends and neighbours. They have to be buried right in the yards of destroyed buildings, next to the roads,’ he said.
Still, major Russian objectives remain unfulfilled. The capital, Kyiv, has been shelled repeatedly but is not even encircled.
Near-constant shelling and gunfire shook the city Wednesday, with plumes of black smoke rising from the western outskirts, where the two sides battled for control of multiple suburbs. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 264 civilians have been killed in the capital since war broke out.
A shopping mall lies in ruins after a missile strike of the Russian troops in the Podilskyi district of Kyiv, capital of Ukraine, March 22, 2022
In the south, the port city of Mariupol has seen the worst devastation of the war, under weeks of siege and bombardment. But Ukrainian forces have prevented its fall, thwarting an apparent bid by Moscow to fully secure a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Zelensky said 100,000 civilians remain in a city that had 430,000 people. Efforts to get desperately needed food and other supplies to those trapped have often failed.
Zelensky accused Russian forces of seizing a humanitarian convoy. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the Russians were holding captive 11 bus drivers and four rescue workers along with their vehicles.
It is not clear how much of Mariupol is still under Ukrainian control.
Fleeing residents say fighting continues street by street. In their last update, over a week ago, Mariupol officials said at least 2,300 people had died, but the true toll is probably much higher.
Airstrikes in the past week destroyed a theatre and an art school where civilians were sheltering.
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