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.
Law, Power and Justice 