In Davos, Zelenskyy urges West to keep course to stop ‘predator’ Russia

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the West on Tuesday (16 January) to show a united front against Russian President Vladimir Putin and to step up its support for Kyiv, especially air defence, to ensure that Moscow does not prevail in the war.

The forum comes as Ukraine’s armed forces are going onto a more defensive footing after a major counteroffensive last year was unable to break through Russian defensive lines in Ukraine’s occupied south and east.

“We must gain air superiority for Ukraine. Just as we gained superiority in the Black Sea, we can do it. This will allow progress on the ground (…) partners know what is needed and in what quantity,” Zelenskyy told the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Ukraine’s armed forces don’t control the country’s airspace at the frontline, which military analysts say makes it more difficult to start an offensive against Russian positions.

Western hesitation in its backing for Ukraine and fears of an escalation in the war with Russia were costing time and could prolong the fighting by years, Zelenskyy said.

“In fact, Putin embodies war (…) He will not change (…) We must change. We all must change to the extent that the madness that resides in this man’s head or any other aggressor’s head will not prevail,” Zelenskyy said.

Nearly two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Zelenskyy told the forum he strongly opposed freezing the conflict along its current lines.

“After 2014, there were attempts to freeze the war in Donbas. There were very influential guarantors, the Chancellor of Germany, the President of France,” Zelenskyy said.

“But Putin is a predator who is not satisfied with frozen products,” he added.

The comment was a reference to the Minsk agreements sealed between Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia, which were aimed to bring an end to fighting between Ukraine’s military and Kremlin-backed separatists, who had occupied swathes of east Ukraine in 2014.

Though they were meant to ease conflict in the Donbas, critics point out they have facilitated the ‘frozen conflict’ to escalate into a hot war after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In Davos, Zelenskyy met senior officials earlier on the sidelines of the forum, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and a series of international investors.

Forcing Putin’s hand

Addressing the forum, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg pressed Ukraine’s Western allies to keep up with the military donations to force Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.

The goal would be to “maximise the likelihood that at some stage, President Putin will understand that to continue this war will have to high a price”, Stoltenberg said, adding that “then at some stage, it will have to sit down and agree to a just peace with Ukraine to prevail as a sovereign independent nation”.

“The way to get there is more weapons to Ukraine, so the more credible the military support, the more likely the diplomats will succeed,” Stoltenberg said.

He added that “what matters is what we do: We have to do whatever we can to increase the price for Russia”.

Ukraine’s Western allies have promised to ramp up the production of defence equipment and ammunition for Kyiv, so it can sustain a war in the long run.

Even though NATO’s chief said that there is “no indication that Putin is planning for peace now”, he added that Putin “will, when realises [Ukraine’s supporters] will not give up and, have the military strength to support Ukraine, then he will sit down and the diplomats will take over”.

Stoltenberg insisted that Russia is still “pushing hard, it is serious and we should not underestimate Russia”. Moscow is “building up, acquiring drones from Iran, building its drone factory with help from Iran, gets ammunition and ballistic missiles for North Korea and have demonstrated high tolerance for casualty”.

According to US intelligence, Russia lost 300,000 troops on the Ukrainian battlefield, Reuters reported.

What's next for Ukraine? Over to EU, and Washington

With Russia’s war on Ukraine entering its third calendar year, Moscow is counting on time and weakening Western resolve, emboldened by seeing that the US and the EU are struggling to provide new funding for Kyiv despite having promised open-ended support. 

Funding decisions looming

Kyiv is now focused on trying to secure Western assistance held up by political wrangling in the US Congress and Brussels, reforming its conscription effort to replenish manpower and addressing artillery shortages at the front.

In a question-and-answer session after his speech, Zelenskyy said he had received “positive signals” about the unlocking of financial support from the European Union.

He said he hoped that the United States would approve further aid within weeks.

Washington is confronting two decisive deadlines — the first on 19 January, the second on 2 February — to fund the federal government or risk a shutdown at the start of a presidential election year.

Von der Leyen said Ukraine’s allies needed to guarantee stable backing for Kyiv as questions swirl over future support from the United States and EU.

“Ukraine can prevail in this war. But we must continue to empower their resistance,” she told the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“Ukrainians need predictable financing throughout 2024 and beyond. They need a sufficient and sustained supply of weapons to defend Ukraine and regain its rightful territory.”

EU leaders will hold a summit on February 1 to try to overcome Hungary’s veto on providing €50 billion in financial aid to Ukraine over the next four years.

Pressure grows on Hungary to lift Ukraine funding objections

While Brussels has been working to solve the Hungarian blockade since Prime Minister Viktor Orbán vetoed the EU’s Ukraine aid package in December, the bloc’s officials now have prepared a potential compromise in exchange for dropping his veto. 

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

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