Zelensky insists on powerful sanctions to prevent escalation by Russia

He said this at a joint press conference with Presidents Andrzej Duda of Poland and Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania on Monday, December 20, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Honestly, I don't see any prerequisites why the president of the Russian Federation will take a step back. Therefore, I think there should be powerful preventive things, powerful and serious sanctions, so that there is not even a single thought about the escalation in any region, because we see that the issue is related not only to Ukraine but to any EU state," Zelensky said.

The presidents of Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania on Monday participated in the Lublin Triangle summit at the Syniohora residence in the village of Huta, Ivano-Frankivsk region.

On December 15, after the Eastern Partnership summit, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the international community should impose sanctions against Russia before it might escalate the situation in Ukraine.

On December 16, the European Parliament passed a resolution on the security situation along Ukraine's borders and in the temporarily occupied territories, condemning a build-up of Russian troops around Ukraine and calling on Russia to withdraw troops and abide by its own international obligations.

Photo: President's Office