Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed frustration with outgoing US President Joe Biden's reluctance to impose preventive sanctions on Russia before the 2022 invasion. Zelensky called threats of sanctions after an invasion 'bullshit' in a recent interview, highlighting the US's failure to take decisive action and its decision to lift sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lamented the hesitation on the part of outgoing President Joe Biden to preventatively sanction Russia before the 2022 full-scale invasion of his country in an interview published on Sunday, describing threats to sanction Moscow only after an invasion “bullshit.”
As president, Zelensky maintained a friendly relationship with then-President Donald Trump that continues to this day and later struggled to establish a functional relationship with Biden. The February 2022 Russian “special operation” to oust Zelensky preceded Biden’s decision the summer before to lift sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, which would have given Russia a stranglehold on natural gas sales to much of western Europe.
“It wasn’t the weapons that I was asking for – I asked for sanctions. Intimidate him,” he emphasized. “Please don’t say ‘If he comes, if he crosses borders, if he kills, we’re imposing sanctions.’ Well, this is complete bullshit. Sorry, but really.” “It still seems to me that Nord Stream 2 … we understand that this is a weapon, a real weapon, and I speak openly about it,” Zelensky said at the time. “A weapon in the hands of the Russian Federation, and it is not very understandable, I feel, and definitely not expected, that the bullets to this weapon can possibly be provided by such a great country as the United States.”
In December 2021, two months before the Russian “special operation,” Zelensky condemned the lack of sanctions on Russia using language very similar to that in the interview with Fridman this week. The “strong sanctions policy” never came, and the escalation occurred. Zelensky appeared optimistic in the interview this weekend about a changing of the guard at the White House to a president with a reputation for liberally imposing sanctions on international rogue actors.
Zelensky Biden Russia Sanctions Ukraine Invasion
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