Zelensky: If Russia did not want to weaken Europe, it would not hit wallets of its residents
“Russia hit the Europeans with the gas crisis - and for the second year in a row, it is deliberately making efforts to ensure that European gas storage facilities remain unfilled before winter. Russia has driven gas prices in Europe to an all-time high – deliberately limiting supply in defiance of market rules. What did it lead to? Catastrophic inflation. If there were no such prices for energy resources, there would be no such painful consequences for the majority of people in Europe,” President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in his address to the Parliament of Slovenia, the press service of the Head of State informs.
The President also noted that the actions of the Russian Federation would lead to mass migration in the world, and this would not bypass Europe. Russian troops blocked Ukrainian ports, and this will affect not only those who depend on food imports.
“This is only the beginning, because without our food it will not be possible to stabilize the world market, save the countries of Africa and Asia from hunger. If there is famine there, it means you will see new migrants on the territory of the EU. Millions of new migrants,” Zelensky stressed.
He added that those were only a few examples of Russia's anti-European actions.
“If the Russian leadership really sought to weaken someone other than Europe, as they claim, then Moscow would not hit the wallets of the residents of even those European countries that tried to be friendly to Russia to the last, and would not try to break the internal social stability of European countries,” the President said.
According to Zelensky, the European Union can protect itself, in particular, from such challenges thanks to cooperation with Ukraine.
For example, Ukraine joined the unified European energy system and even in wartime conditions started exporting electricity to Romania and Slovakia at a price much lower than the prices in the EU, he noted.
“We can quickly increase exports by ten or more times - and this will allow Ukrainian electricity to replace a significant part of European imports of Russian gas. Thanks to our electricity, all European neighbors of Ukraine can get new energy stability, and therefore a decrease in energy prices in Europe,” the President said.
Also, according to him, Ukrainian gas storage facilities are the most convenient for the region, large in volume and able to strengthen the European gas market and make the European Union more prepared for winter seasons.
In agricultural production, even under the full-scale war conditions, the Ukrainian harvest of grain and oil crops will reach tens of millions of tonnes. Currently, new export routes are created in partnership with the EU, the Head of State said.
“And the more such green corridors for Ukrainian food through the territory of the EU are created, the sooner we will guarantee protection for the south of Europe from new waves of migration, and therefore guarantee the preservation of internal social stability in the EU countries,” the President of Ukraine added.
According to Zelensky, Ukraine’s integration into the digital market of the European Union opens up colossal opportunities.
“Industrial cooperation with us, as well as the joint implementation of the project of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, can give the whole of Europe such an economic boost that will have historical weight and will be remembered in the same way as the implementation of the Marshall Plan after World War II. And I invite your country, as well as Slovenian companies and specialists, to join the reconstruction of Ukraine. The volume of work is already about a trillion dollars,” Zelensky said.
As noted, the security component is also important as Russia wants to regain control over all the countries it could once reach. And in order for everyone in Europe to feel safe, Ukraine must preserve its sovereignty, recover from the war, and become a long-term guarantor of Europe's security against Russian revanchism, he emphasized.
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