Zelensky Says Post-War Ukraine Will Be as Militarized as Israel

Editor’s note: He’s not wrong. For that reason, Moscow will try to make it so that after the war Ukraine is quite a bit smaller than it is now.

Source: The Jerusalem Post

Ukraine plans to model itself after Israel and not Switzerland in the aftermath of the Russian invasion when it comes to issues of national security, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday.

“I think all our people will be our great army. We cannot talk about ‘Switzerland of the future’ — probably, our state will be able to be like this a long time after,” Zelensky said. “But we will definitely become a ‘big Israel’ with its own face.”

“We will not be surprised that we will have representatives of the Armed Forces or the National Guard in all institutions, supermarkets, cinemas, there will be people with weapons. I am sure that our security issue will be number one in the next ten years,” he explained.

Ukraine has persistently resisted Russian demands that it de-militarize, with Zelensky clarifying on Tuesday that his country must have an army to defend its people against Russian aggression in the future.

There will also need to be countries that provide Ukraine with security guarantees, Zelensky said as he listed Israel as one of those countries.

“All this is being discussed at the level of advisers and leaders with France, the United States, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, Israel, and there are many friends who want to join,” Zelensky said. “So far, we have not received a specific list of guarantees and a list of countries that are ready to join us 100%.”

Ukraine needs a small circle of states ready to help it with its defensive needs, Zelensky explained.

“We need serious players who are ready for anything. We need a circle of states that are ready to provide any weapons within 24 hours. We need individual countries on which sanctions policy really depends, so that these sanctions are deeply elaborated in advance. So that in the first second when we feel the threat from the Russian Federation, these states will unite and within three days introduce everything at once, block everything,” Zelensky said. [So he wants a bunch of strong states to give up their independence and hand it over to Kiev…]

Zelensky spoke to the media just prior to his address to the UN Security Council, where he accused Russia of war crime and called for its ouster from the 15-member council. Russia is one of five permanent members of the council, and as such it has veto power. Russia has used that veto to block any UNSC action against its war on Ukraine.

Source: Haaretz

Ukraine will become a “‘big Israel’ with its own face,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared on Tuesday, indicating that his country intends to emulate the Israeli security state in the wake of Russia’s invasion.

“Ukraine will definitely not be what we wanted it to be from the beginning. It is impossible. Absolutely liberal, European – it will not be like that. It [Ukraine] will definitely come from the strength of every house, every building, every person,” Zelenskyy told members of the Ukrainian media during a briefing.