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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday and Friday called on European and NATO leaders by name to exact harsher sanctions on Russia as President Vladimir Putin’s forces push deeper toward Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said Friday he held calls with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Finland President Sauli Niinistö, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and pleaded for additional help.
“Today [Ukraine] needs the support of partners more than ever,” Zelenskyy tweeted Friday. “We demand effective counteraction to the Russian Federation. Sanctions must be further strengthened.”
“Not all possibilities for sanctions have been exhausted yet,” Zelenskyy wrote in a tweet tagging von der Leyen. “The pressure on Russia must increase.”
The U.S. has said that more sanctions, including some targeting Putin himself, are on the table.
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Zelenskyy’s push comes after the United States and many European countries slapped Russia with sanctions Thursday as a punishment for its war against Ukraine. But the sanctions largely left Russia’s key energy industry untouched. And President Biden notably did not move to remove Russia from the international SWIFT banking system.
Biden told reporters that he decided against removing Russia from SWIFT because most of Europe opposed such a move at this time. But Zelenskyy implored Western nations to do just that as Russian troops continued to move toward his capital.
“We demand the disconnection of Russia from SWIFT, the introduction of a no-fly zone over Ukraine and other effective steps to stop the aggressor,” Zelenskyy said ahead of a conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the European Union’s sanctions package Thursday. Neither the E.U. nor the U.S. met those demands.
UKRAINE LEADER ZELENSKYY SAYS HE’S RUSSIA’S ‘TARGET NO. 1’
Zekenskyy’s exhortations…
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Source : foxnews
