Ukraine’s Zelensky voices doubts about world leaders, security assurances, international law

Following the development of the war in his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that he has difficulties believing in the reliability of “some countries or some leaders.”

During an exclusive interview, CNN questioned Zelensky if he now considers declarations by world leaders using the phrase “never again,” which is connected with the Holocaust and frequently used after crimes against humanity, to be “hollow.”

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“You lost ancestors in the Holocaust. Every year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, politicians put out statements that say, never again, never again. Those statements must seem really hollow right now to you. When the world says never again, do they ever mean it?” Zelensky was asked.

The 44-year-old president responded, “I don’t believe the world. After we have seen what’s going on in Ukraine, we’ve — I mean that I don’t believe to this feeling that we should believe to the — to the — some countries or some leaders. We don’t believe the words. After the escalation of Russia, we don’t believe our neighbors. We don’t believe all of this.”

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As the war in Ukraine rages on and Russia is accused of alleged war crimes, the Ukrainian president went on to state that he doesn’t even believe in documented security assurances or international law.

“Even I don’t believe documents, because we also have a Budapest Memorandum — I think you know all of the details of this. For me, that is just a piece of paper and costs nothing,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky went on to say that his faith and belief are based on practical, tangible actions and the Ukrainian people.

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“We just believe contracted, pragmatic things. If you are our friends or partners, give us weapons, give us hand, give us support us, give us money and stop Russia, kick Russia. You can do it if you’re a friend. If you think about this democracy and everything just of this moment because we have the same thoughts, if we are speaking about freedom, not because we want to have dialogue about freedom,” he said.

Zelensky concluded, “The only belief there is belief in ourselves, in our people, belief in our Armed Forces, and the belief that countries are going to support us not just with their words but with their actions. And that’s it. Never again … Really, everybody is talking about this and yet, as you can see, not everyone has got the guts.”