LONDON: In a powerful speech during the opening session of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the lesson to be learned from the Russian invasion of Ukraine is that the global community must act preventively, rather than reactively, if it is to deter future acts of international aggression.
Speaking via video link from Kyiv almost three months after the Russian invasion began, Zelensky said that the world was at a turning point, “a moment when it is decided whether brute force will rule the world.”
If brute force were to prevail, he said, there would be “no need for further meetings in Davos,” because “brute force is not interested in our thoughts. Brute force seeks nothing but the subjugation of those it seeks to subdue.
“It does not discuss, but kills at once, and Russia is doing that in Ukraine, even as we speak.”
Moscow says its “special military operation” in Ukraine, launched on Feb. 24, is aimed at protecting Russia’s security and that of Russian-speaking people in the eastern Donbas region.
In Monday’s speech, bookended by standing ovations from Davos summit participants, Zelensky said that Russia had become “a state of war criminals,” whose acts, if allowed to go unpunished by the international community, were in danger of inspiring other potential aggressor states in future.
He spoke movingly of the chaos…