Zelenskyy says ‘the one who brought death must ask for mercy’
Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Germany (Photo:REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch)
The one who brought death and wants to destroy Ukrainians and Europe must ask for mercy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Germany on May 14.
“The one who brought death, the one who embarked on the path of genocide, the one who wants to destroy us, the one who wants to destroy the Europe we value must ask for mercy,” the Ukrainian president said at the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen award ceremony. He was accepting the award on behalf of the Ukrainian people.
“And then there will be our response — a tribunal.”
Zelenskyy said the only one who does not accept the formula for peace is the aggressor.
“And it is because he is the aggressor that he does not accept it,” he said.
“But what is most important is that he is alone, and we are not afraid of him. And he does not accept this because he is not interested in peace. That is it.”
The Ukrainian president reiterated that “there were hundreds of rounds of negotiations between 2014 and 2022 in various formats with Russia after its occupation of our Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the incitement of a hybrid war against Ukraine in Donbas.”
“There were all these negotiations,” he said.
“And you, Olaf (Scholz), Mr. Chancellor (of Germany), you remember, and our ally (French) President Emmanuel Macron, and other conscientious leaders of the world spent hours and hours talking to (Russian dictator Vladimir) Putin, trying to avert this modern-day catastrophe.”
Zelenskyy added that “Putin is a catastrophe.”
“Putin is aggression, and he does not want anything else for himself and his people,” Zelenskyy said.
“His formula has become death. How can one talk to it, explain to me, how can you talk to it? In its long history, humanity has never known anyone who could reach an agreement with death.”
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