Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday sanctions on Russia should be made public before a possible invasion of Ukraine occurs, as tensions between western nations and Russia continue to intensify.
Zelensky told CNN’s Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour in a one-on-one interview at the Munich Security Conference that he disagreed with the stance that sanctions should only be listed after a potential Russian invasion takes place. “The question of just making it public… just the list of sanctions, for them, for us, to know what will happen if they start the war — even that question does not have the support,” he told CNN. “We don’t need your sanctions after the bombardment will happen and after our country will be fired at or after we will have no borders, or after we will have no economy… why would we need those sanctions then?” “We had a discussion some time ago with one of the leaders of one of the leading countries and we were talking about the sanctions policy… we had a different vision on how sanctions should applied when Russian aggression will happen,” Zelensky said. “So when you are asking, what can be done, well, lots of different things can be done. We can even provide you with a list. The most important is willingness. “If you can’t even disclose what will happen to whom if the war starts… I doubt it will be triggered after it happens,” he added. The security conference is taking place as the brewing conflict between Russia and Ukraine threatens to boil over and diplomatic efforts stall. Russia has been tightening its military grip around Ukraine since last year, amassing tens of thousands of troops, equipment and artillery on the country’s doorstep. The aggression has sparked warnings from US officials that a Russian invasion is imminent. When asked about a potential false flag pretext for war with Russia, Zelensky told Amanpour that “any provocations are very dangerous.” “I think the most complicated question is that in Crimea, in the temporary occupied territory of the Donbas along Ukraine and Russia, there is 30 to 35,000 on the temporary occupying territories… so provocations are, indeed, very dangerous, if you have this number of troops. One shelling, one cannon fire can lead to war,” Zelensky warned.
