MUNICH, Germany – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky opened the annual Munich Security Conference on Friday, calling on his Western allies to support his country against Russia in what he compared to the Biblical story of David and Goliath.
“The Russian Goliath has already started to lose,” said Zelensky, sitting behind a desk in Kiev in his trademark olive green sweatshirt. “There is no substitute for our victory.”
Zelensky thanked the US and European countries for the military support sent to his country, while urging them to do more, saying that Ukraine’s “sling” needed to be strengthened. (In the Biblical account, the young Israeli shepherd David struck down the Philistine giant Goliath with a sling and a small stone.) Zelensky warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to drag out the conflict, betting that The world would lose interest in war if it happened. ,
“We need speed,” Zelensky said. “Speed is important.”
Zelensky also dismissed a recent saber by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who said on Thursday that his country was ready to join Russia’s war against Ukraine if attacked.
“The chances of Belarus getting involved in the war are slim,” he said. “People in Belarus are not ready to fight against Ukraine. It will not be easy to persuade them.”
He predicted that if the Belarusian troops got involved, they would suffer significant losses.
Zelensky, whose remarks received enthusiastic applause from an audience of policymakers and military officers gathered in Munich, ended his speech by calling for the acceleration of his country’s integration into the Western fold.
“There is no alternative to Ukraine in the European Union, there is no alternative to Ukraine in NATO, there is no alternative to our unity,” he said.