Zelenskiy asks G7 for monitoring of Ukraine's border with Belarus
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Loading... - Ignacio Cervantes
- 12 Oct 2022
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has asked G7 leaders to supply more air defence systems and for an international monitoring mission on the Belarusian border, as Russia continued to attack key infrastructure in Ukraine with a new wave of missile strikes on Tuesday.
Zelenskiy’s comments came amid warnings from the UN and some Nato countries that Moscow may be committing a war crime with its continuing deadly blitz on civilian targets.
Warning that the Russian president “still has room for further escalation”, Zelenskiy added that the prompt supply of more air defence systems would accelerate the end of the war.
“When Ukraine receives a sufficient quantity of modern and effective air defence systems, the key element of Russia’s terror, rocket strikes, will cease to work,” Zelenskiy said in a video-streamed address.
The White House national security council spokesman, John Kirby, said the US was working to expedite the shipment of sophisticated Nasams air defences capable of engaging Russian cruise missiles that was first announced in August. Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine reported on Tuesday that Ukraine had received a delivery of the German Iris-T air defence system.
While Zelenskiy had been expected to press for additional air defence systems to counter the Russian missile threat, and renewed his call for more sanctions against Moscow, his request for international monitoring of Ukraine’s border with Belarus comes amid mounting fears that Minsk is being drawn ever further into the Kremlin’s war.
Belarus’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, on Monday announced his country was joining a joint regional military command with Russia, after allowing Belarus to be used for staging military attacks on Ukraine in its 24 February invasion.
Zelenskiy said: “On the border of Ukraine and Belarus, we can place a mission of international observers to monitor the security situation. The format can be worked out by our diplomats. I ask you, on the level of the G7, to support this initiative.” Read More...
