Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called out the West for simply waiting 'for World War Three' to start in its response to Russian troops targeting Mariupol.
Officials of the southern port city stated yesterday, March 9, that several bombs were dropped on a children's hospital, destroying it and leaving 'children [...] under the wreckage,' according to Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian government has said 1,170 civilians have been killed the city, which has seen residents left without food, water and electricity as well as at risk of shelling as a result of being surrounded by Russian troops for days.
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The Ukrainian president has since spoken out, appealing once again to NATO to enforce a no-fly zone above the country, warning the West that nations must get involved before it's 'too late' and 'millions' die.
Zelenskyy, who has previously called out Europe for insufficient action, has accused NATO of having the same indecisiveness against the Russians, or who he calls 'the Nazis', Sky News reports.
He stated, 'You can't decide to close or not to close... you can't decide.
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'If you are united against the Nazis and this terror, you have to close. Don't wait for me ask you several times, a million times. Close the sky. Close the sky and stop the bombing.'
Addressing NATO's reservations about enforcing a no-fly zone in case it escalated the conflict into a 'fully fledged war in Europe,' Zelenskyy questioned, 'Worse for whom? For our families? No... For them..? Who knows?'
'Nobody knows. But we know that exactly that now is very bad. And in future it will be too late. Believe me, if it's prolonged this way, you will see... they will close the sky but we will lose millions of people,' he said. 'The third world war will start and only then you will make a no-fly zone - but it will be too late.'
Zelenskyy warned that if NATO does not act soon, it will be left having to tell Ukrainians who have lost children, 'Sorry we didn't do it yesterday, one week ago. We didn't push Putin, we didn't speak with him a lot, we didn't find the dialogue with him. We did nothing and it's true, yesterday the world did nothing… I'm sorry, but it's true'.
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Ukrainian MP, Dmytro Gurin, echoed the same message as Zelenskyy, 'Is the blood of the Ukrainian people red enough? Putin won't stop with Ukraine, and the West could end up with a war on its territory too. You now have to choose.
'You will ask in two years when they are bombing infrastructure in the middle of Europe - why didn't you close the sky?'
Zelenskyy stated that Ukrainians are being made to 'feel like animals,' Mail Online reports, conluding that Putin is 'going directly to hell,' and that while Russian forces 'can occupy [Ukraine]', they 'definitely can't win'.
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Topics: Ukraine, Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin