Zelensky warns G7 members: Putin hopes the collapse of Western unity will happen next year

2023-12-06 20:54:48Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Zelensky warns G7 members: Putin hopes the collapse of Western unity will happen
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky at the UN

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told G7 leaders on Wednesday that Russia has increased pressure on the front lines and warned that Moscow is hoping the West's unity will collapse next year.

The virtual G7 meeting, attended by key Kiev allies including US President Joe Biden and UK leader Rishi Sunak, comes amid fears that Western support for Ukraine could fade as it makes less and less progress on the battlefield.

"Russia hopes for only one thing - that next year the consolidation of the free world will collapse," Zelensky said, warning that President Vladimir Putin had "significantly increased the pressure on the front".

"We have to win the battle for motivation. The motivation of our people and all of Europe. The ongoing battle is not only about the fate of Ukraine, it is about Europe," Zelensky told the leaders.

He also called on EU members to "fulfill" their promise to open membership talks with Kiev as the 27-member bloc prepares for a summit next week.

The European Commission recommended opening formal membership negotiations with Ukraine in November, but talks cannot formally begin unless all member states agree.

Despite a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has used billions of dollars worth of Western weapons, the front lines in the 21-month conflict have moved little in more than a year.

However, attacks along the front have intensified, including around the strategically important town of Avdiivka.

While US President Joe Biden issued a stark warning on Wednesday, saying that Russian leader Vladimir Putin "will not stop there" if he is successful in invading Ukraine.

"If Putin takes Ukraine, he's not going to stop there... He's going to continue, he's made that very clear," Biden said at the White House.

And if Russia attacks a member of the NATO alliance, Biden warned, "then we're going to have something that we don't want and we don't have today: American troops fighting Russian troops ... if he moves into other parts of NATO".


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