Ukraine: Zelensky Interview, Round-up from Ukrainian Twitter

Zelensky traveled to Munich to shore up relationships with the western leaders.  In an impressive interview with Christaine Amapour, Zelensky made the following points:

•           If the West is so sure Putin is going to invade, why not implement sanctions now?

•           The West will not even provide a detailed list of sanctions.

•           What is the point of sanctions after the Russians have destroyed the economy and the infrastructure.

•           You cannot live in a country anticipating war every day.  What kind of economy would you have then?  Panic would crush the national currency, business would flee.  There would be no stability. 

•           Living in fear only strengthens the enemies from within who want Ukraine to be weak – to have a weak economy, a weak military.   

•           Ukrainians have to assess the situation and decide how to react.  (Note: I presume this means rather than being told how to react).

•           If panic starts people will withdraw money from accounts.  If you want to help give us arms, invest in our country.   

•           Ukrainians and Western leaders have a “different vision” on sanctions.  Ukraine doesn’t need sanctions after the country is fired at, attacked, when we will have no economy, no borders and our country will be occupied.     

•           It was “important” for Zelensky to come to Munich.  (Note: Several U.S. military commentators on corporate news, warned that he should not leave Ukraine.)    One of the CNN commentators said he understood why Zelensky had come, since he garnered a world audience to plead his case.  Zelensky noted that he had breakfast in Ukraine and would have dinner in Ukraine.           

From other sources, Ukraine:

• There are orders of a “massive and urgent” evacuation of civilians near Rostov in Donbas.
• This can mean that a decision has been made on an offensive operation in Donbas.
• These evacuations can be used as provocation blamed on the Ukrainians.
• Some tweets from Ukraine were noting this morning that people were afraid to get on the evacuation busses because they feared Russians would attack the busses to create a provocation by blaming the Ukrainians.
• Russian-installed Donetsk and Luhansk leaders have declared mobilization of 18-55 year old men, banning them from leaving. 
• Russian state media is saying that a shell hit Russian territory.
• Russian troops have not left Belarus (where they were supposedly doing exercises).
• Tweet: Evacuation means Escalation.
• Richard Engel (NBC): Russia has nearly half it’s military forces in attack positions around Ukraine.  Putin is accusing Ukraine of genocide.  The Russians are accusing the west of being hysterical?
• Russia is blaming Ukraine for preparing “chemical weapons” but does not call international inspections to check to see if this is true.
• Zelensky got a thunderous standing ovation after an interview in Munich. 
• (Note: I think the snake Chris Coons was in the audience). 
• Russian media has been portraying Ukraine as an aggressive state for years.
• The narrative that Ukraine is an aggressive state has intensified in the past months.
• Russian media is accusing Ukraine of a military buildup.
• Russia has pushed proxies in occupied Donbas to announce massive evacuations.
• Putin continues the narrative of a “genocidal” Ukraine.
• Parallels are made by Russians to “Nazi” crimes. (Note: Again, this has been going on for years).
• Russia shelling Ukrainian positions near border to provoke a response and justify an attack.
• There are those predicting that this indicates an escalation around Donbas again.