Zelensky: Putin’s campaign is a global threat and must be stopped
Inside a tightly secured Kyiv government compound, President Volodymyr Zelensky set out a simple binary: accept incremental land losses that could buy a pause, or push back with sustained pressure to prevent broader aggression.
He framed the Kremlin’s campaign not as isolated territorial grabs, but as a wider attempt to reshape international norms, arguing that stopping it is a global security stake rather than only a Ukrainian one.
On negotiations, he dismissed proposals that trade sovereign soil for a ceasefire, warning such deals would leave populations exposed and fracture Ukrainian society; Kyiv has repeatedly insisted any pause must be accompanied by verified pullbacks and multinational security guarantees.
Zelensky also laid out a practical capacity gap: Kyiv lacks the industrial permission and licensing to produce key munitions and air‑defence components under foreign licence, a limitation he said impedes sustainable defence and would require legal instruments — including eventual Congressional ratification in the United States — to be durable.
He has broadened Kyiv’s diplomatic push, including high‑profile outreach aimed at influential U.S. figures to break logjams in Western assistance and speed deliveries of precision and sustainment systems — a tactical move that could shorten procurement timelines but risks politicising aid.
Diplomacy has continued alongside heavy fighting: recent U.S.-backed Geneva talks produced a limited set of technical steps (including a reciprocal prisoner exchange reported at 314 detainees) but failed to bridge core gaps on territory, verification and multinational guarantees.
Those negotiations were overshadowed by a large coordinated aerial campaign. Field reports described roughly 396–400 unmanned aerial systems accompanied by guided missiles (counts of missiles vary across sources from about 29 to more than 60), which struck substations, switchyards and thermal power plants across multiple regions and triggered rolling electricity outages.
The strikes complicated logistics and repairs amid subzero temperatures, prompting Kyiv to request emergency electricity imports from Poland and spurring expedited offers of transformers and mobile generation from partners — measures that aid short‑term restoration but do not substitute for secure repair windows or specialised equipment.
Analyses from allied intelligence services caution that pauses and conciliatory rhetoric can be tactical: an Estonian assessment argues Moscow uses lulls to resupply and consolidate, rather than to de‑escalate, increasing the need for verifiable steps before allies reduce pressure.
Operationally, licensing to manufacture systems like Patriot components would shift supply chains and reduce Ukraine’s dependence on intermittent foreign shipments, but legal, IP and certification hurdles mean meaningful output could take many months to years.
Taken together, Zelensky’s message aims to harden international resolve — pressing allies to convert episodic support into durable industrial, legal and verification arrangements — while warning that short‑term pauses absent guarantees will likely favour Russian consolidation.
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