Russia-Ukraine war to result in full-scale war in Europe - Zelensky

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky made the statement at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson after the talks in Kyiv on February 1, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Russians need to hear us, they need to listen and they need to understand that no one needs war. But we aren’t inviting to our land anyone armed. I can say for sure that the nation has changed, society has changed, the Army has changed, there’ve been many different changes. Now there will be no occupation of any city or territory. It will be, unfortunately, a tragedy if a major escalation against our country kicks off. So I say frankly that this won’t be a war between Ukraine and Russia, this will be a war in Europe, a full-scale war. That’s because no one will be giving up on any of its territories and people," Zelensky stressed.

The president noted that high risks remain today for anyone seeking to seize part of Ukraine’s territories. "Because people living today in Donbas, in that part of our Ukrainian Donbas, which is not occupied, see how the occupied part has been destroyed... Today, comparing what they had with what they could unfortunately be faced with, they will be defending (their land - ed.) to the end, "Zelensky said.

Zelensky also noted that at present it is impossible to say exactly if the threat of Russian invasion is being exaggerated.

"As for exaggerating threats or downplaying them, I think it’s very difficult to answer this question. No one can predict what happens next, no one offers 100% guarantees to anyone, let alone us, who back in 2014 could not have predicted that a war would be unleashed here, that our territories would be occupied, that we would have a military conflict, that we would sever relations with our neighbors, toward whom a large share of Ukrainians had more than just a positive attitude as they had families there, common business, common history, and a lot of other things that are no longer there. This is all in the past," said the president.

"We must be powerful, we must have a very powerful Army and rely on ourselves," the Ukrainian leader added.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the prime ministers of Poland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom arrived in Kyiv on February 1.

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be also visiting Ukraine this week.

Photo: Ukrainian President’s Office

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