On October 9th, a fragment of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s interview was published on Facebook, claiming that the words spoken by Zelenskyy make it clear why Russia started the war in Ukraine. In the part of the circulated video, Zelenskyy notes that Ukraine will declare a state of war and start military operations to return the territories in Donbas. The comments on the post mention that the video is from 2019.
The section of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 2019 press conference is being disseminated without context. In fact, answering the journalist’s question, Zelenskyy notes that the society did not elect a president who would declare war, and he himself does not intend to sacrifice people’s lives and wants to resolve the conflict through diplomatic measures.
The video disseminated on Facebook is cut from the 14-hour press marathon held on October 10th, 2019. One of the journalists asked Zelenskyy a question regarding the ongoing conflict in Donbas, noting that Zelenskyy is behaving like the successor of his predecessor (Petro Poroshenko), who did not dare to call war for war’s sake and did not declare martial law. The journalist asked Zelenskyy if it would be better for Ukraine to call war for war and declare a state of war; this would, on the one hand, create a legal framework for describing the current events in Donbas, and on the other hand, make the situation more understandable to the rest of the world. Answering the question, Zelenskyy noted that the Ukrainian people did not elect a president who would declare war and martial law after coming to power.
| The Quote of Zelenskyy in the Facebook video | The full quote of Zelenskyy from the press marathon |
| Starting today we are in a state of war, we are in war. We will fight, our army is ready. We will start a war in Donbas. We will take back our territories with war and army, it is not important for us how many people will die, but we are ready to take back our land. We are ready for direct military action on the occupied territories. | I came [to power] as a president of peace; I want to end the war. Today, for the first time, you don’t understand that society is the most important thing for me. You and I understand that we are human beings, and the most important thing is the community. The public did not vote for the president who would come and say that from today we are in a state of war, we are in war. We will fight, our army is ready. We will start a war in Donbas. We will take back our territories with war and army, it is not important for us how many people will die, but we are ready to take back our land. We are ready for direct military action on the occupied territories. If you say so, you should enter Crimea with war, despite the fact that our army is not ready. I, as the president, am not ready to sacrifice our people, so the diplomatic path is chosen. |
In addition, Zelenskyy noted that declaring a state of war will not solve the problems in Ukraine, while people’s lives remain the main priority for him, so he wants to test the existing diplomatic ways. According to the president of Ukraine, in the past, when Poroshenko tried to announce partial mobilization, it scared people, caused panic, people started thinking about fleeing the country, and Zelenskyy did not want to do the same.
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