Sanctions and diplomacy can stop the war in Ukraine: President Zelenskyy

Asia-Pacific, Europe, News June 12, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a speech in front of a global audience at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, on June 11, where he urged the leaders to put more punitive sanctions on Russia and use their diplomatic channels to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

While speaking to 575 delegates from 40 different countries through a video link from a ‘secret location’ in Kyiv, President Zelenskyy said that Putin’s army has “killed dozens of thousands of our people and deported thousands more to his territory.”

During his speech, he also quoted Singapore’s late founding leader Lee Kuan Yew’s 1966 speech, where he stated a Chinese proverb, “Big fish eat small fish; small fish eat shrimps,” referring to the global system where small states would not be able to survive unless an international law is developed and observed by all major stakeholder. However, Zelenskyy improvised the proverb by stating that some shrimps also have “poisonous stings.”

He also warned that “If due to Russian blockades we are unable to export our foodstuffs, the world will face an acute and severe food crisis and famine in many countries in Asia and Africa. The shortage of foodstuff will inexorably lead to political chaos, which can result in the falling of many governments and the ousting of many politicians.”

Upon being asked about the Taiwan issue and the observations that draw similarities between Taiwan and Ukraine, saying that the Island could one day face a similar situation of being targeted by its larger neighbor, Zelenskyy replied that a diplomatic solution should be used to find a way forwards in the given situation.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that “We must not leave [countries] behind at the mercy of another country, which is more powerful in financial terms, in territorial terms, and in terms of equipment.”

^{Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy (on screen) addresses participants at the Shangri-La Dialogue summit virtually via a video link in Singapore on 11 June, 2022. (Image Credit: Roslan Rahman/AFP)}

Zelenskyy further added that “if there is a way out diplomatically, we need to use the diplomatic way. But it must be a pre-emptive way, not the one that comes after the war has started, after hostilities have broken out.”

Beijing has repeatedly dismissed the comparison that is being made between Taiwan and Ukraine stating that Taiwan is already a part of China and its issues are China’s internal matters, far different from Ukraine and Russia.

In his 30 minutes of online appearance, Zelenskyy also repeated that Ukrainian armed forces are trying their best to push back Russian forces beyond its borders in order to reinstate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. He urged leaders to help Ukraine by imposing more economic sanctions on Russia and engaging the Russian side in diplomatic dialogue in order to find a peaceful solution for the ongoing war in Ukraine.