Ukraine is Europe's "shield" against the Russian army and deserves stronger international support, President Volodymyr Zelensky told a security summit in Munich on Saturday.
"For eight years, Ukraine has been a shield. For eight years, Ukraine has been holding back one of the greatest armies in the world," Zelensky told the Munich Security Conference, in reference to Ukraine's conflict with Russian-backed separatists.
Western powers should drop their policy of "appeasement" toward Moscow, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky told a security forum, as fears mount of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"Ukraine has received security guarantees for abandoning the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal. We have no weapons. And no security ... But we have a right -- a right to demand a shift from a policy of appeasement to one ensuring security and peace," he said at the gathering in Munich.
Zelensky on Saturday said he wanted to convene a meeting of global powers to secure new security guarantees for Ukraine because the current global system is too weak.
While his country back home was bracing for a possible attack from Russia, Zelenskiy also called on members of the NATO alliance to be honest about whether they wanted Ukraine to join.
Ukraine wants a "clear" timeframe for when it can join the NATO alliance, Zelensky told a security forum.
"What can we do? We can continue forcefully supporting Ukraine and its defences. Present... clear, feasible timeframes for membership of the Alliance," he said in a statement.
Ukrainians are trying to live their lives as best they can under the current threat of a Russian invasion as they have few other alternatives, Zelensky said in a statement.
"Just putting ourselves into coffins and waiting for foreign soldiers to come in is not something we are prepared to do," he told the Munich Security Conference. "We cannot remain passive. We cannot say on a daily basis that war will come tomorrow. Can you have stability in that kind of country?"
If the world wants to help Ukraine, he says, then other countries need to send arms and find ways to invest.
"We're not panicking. We just want to live our lives."
