Zelensky Slams Europe’s Inaction at Davos (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Ukraine's President Zelensky has made a speech really critical of European leaders at Davos saying it was good at planning for the future but could not tackle the problems of today. He asked why Europe could not stop tankers from Russia's Shadow Fleet and seize the oil whilst they were cavering, while President Trump could. And while he thanked Europe for freezing Russian assets, he said that when the time came to use them to help Ukraine, the decision was blocked. Right at the beginning of that address, President Zelensky compared to what was happening in Ukraine to the famous film Groundhog Day.

[00:00:36] Speaker 2: Everyone remembers the great American film Groundhog Day with Bill Murray and Andy McDowell. Yes, but no one would want to live like that, repeating the same thing for weeks, months and of course for years. And yet, that's exactly how we lie, how we live now, and it's our life. And every forum like this one proves it. A year has passed and nothing has changed. We are still in a situation where I must say the same words, but why? The answer is not just about the threats that exist or may appear. Each year brings something new for Europe and for the world.

[00:01:35] Speaker 1: Well later in that same speech, referencing today's meeting with Donald Trump, President Zelensky said the documents aimed at ending the war are nearly ready.

[00:01:46] Speaker 2: Today we met with President Trump and our teams are working almost every day. It's not simple. The documents aimed at ending this war are nearly, nearly ready and that really matters. Ukraine is working with full honesty and determination and that brings results and Russia must become ready too, to finish this war, to stop this aggression, Russian aggression, Russian war against us. So the pressure must be strong enough and the support for Ukraine must grow even stronger.

[00:02:27] Speaker 1: Well it was really interesting listening to that speech. It was a long speech and probably the most frustrated President Zelensky has been at a major gathering at different stages. We played it in one of our headlines, he said, was the message to people that kill enough people you stay in power. He was talking to Vladimir Putin. He talked about Putin still being free, still fighting for the money, the frozen assets in Europe. Very critical of the fact that his view as Russia's President had blocked the Europeans using that. And he posed the question right at the end, could you rely on NATO if there's some sort of false flag operation used by Russia? Who will respond? The belief is that NATO will respond but what happens, he said, if the US does not decide to act? So some really fundamental questions being asked there from President Zelensky.