Ukraine’s President Zelensky spoke in front of the German Parliament in a series of appeals to world leaders.
In one of a series of meetings with world governments, Ukraine President Zelensky spoke in front of the German parliament.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Bundestag in a video call for the first time on Thursday morning before the German parliament opened.
The Ukrainian president told German parliamentarians that “help came too late to stop war” with Russia, which invaded the country on February 24.
Zelenskyy had some harsh words for the German government over its economic interests with Russia. “We could see your willingness to continue to do business with Russia and now we’re in the middle of the cold war. And again this is something you have failed to see,” Zelensky told the Bundestag.
“You’re still protecting yourself behind a wall that does not make it possible for you to see what we are going through,” he added.
‘Mr. Scholz, tear down this wall’
In Zelensky’s emotional address, he also appealed directly to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz saying “Dear Mr. Scholz, tear down this wall.”
By using the term “wall”, the president made a direct historical reference to a speech by US President Ronald Reagan standing next to the Berlin Wall in 1987, DW’s Chief International Editor Richard Walker explained.
The former US president famously pleaded with Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” an appeal Zelenskyy was making to Olaf Scholz.
“This was a theme Zelenskyy had in his speech, that there is a new wall in Europe,” Walker said, “suggesting that this was a wall Ukraine was on the wrong side of, that there is this in-group of NATO and there’s Ukraine on the outside, vulnerable to these attacks from Russia.”
Yesterday Zelensky gave an emotional speech to US politicians in a call for help as his country is being destroyed by invading Russia.
Zelensky used famous American lines in yesterday’s speech as well, stating he had a dream when asking for help. The US is giving more nearly $16 billion to Ukraine per recent actions.