Seoul, South Korea
Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged world leaders on Wednesday to make a rules-based international order “work again” by standing up to Russian use of force.
In a video address to a global conference hosted by South Korea, Zelenskiy – whose country was invaded by Russia in 2022 – said many nations and regions of the world would benefit from the restoration of the international rule of law.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi via phone line, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine on 20th March, 2024. PICTURE: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters/File photo
“Together we have to make the force that has gone mad come back to the rules, and make the rules work again,” he told the Summit for Democracy, an initiative of US President Joe Biden aimed at discussing ways to stop democratic backsliding and erosion of rights and freedoms.
Zelenskiy said that for peace to prevail, the US Congress – where political wrangling has held up passage of a bill that would provide $US60 billion more in aid for Ukraine – must join the world in being the “co-authors of solid reliability.”
Kyiv and its Western partners have accused Russia of using false pretexts to wage an unjustified war of colonial conquest in Ukraine. Russia says it sent troops to Ukraine two years ago in a “special military operation” to ensure its own security.
Biden, a Democrat, has backed military aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. Some members of Congress and former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican candidate in the US presidential election in November, have opposed it.
This year’s Summit for Democracy largely focused on digital threats to elections and democracy, including AI-powered misinformation, spyware, and other technology.
Russia’s defence minister said on Wednesday that Russian troops were pushing Ukrainian forces back, and that Moscow would bolster its military by adding two new armies and 30 new formations by the end of this year.
Russia said last month its goals in Ukraine remain unchanged, including the demilitarisation and “denazification” of occupied regions, and preserving the broader security of Russia in the face of NATO encroachment.
Firefighters work at a site of a printing house hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on 20th March, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Sofiia Gatilova
Meanwhile, a Russian missile hit an industrial area in Ukraine’s northern city of Kharkiv on Wednesday, killing at least five people and injuring eight while causing a major fire in a printing house, local authorities said.
The mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, said five people were missing after the strike.
The Kharkiv region, which borders Russia to the north and lies close to the front line, has suffered regular drone and missile attacks during Russia’s two-year-old invasion.
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The X-59 missile struck the multistorey industrial building in the afternoon.
“The building houses production facilities and offices. This is an act of terrorism because it was conducted at a time when the vast majority of the people are at work,” Volodymyr Tymoshko, head of the regional police, was quoted as saying on a police account on Telegram.
“In addition to the five dead, there are another five who are missing,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram.
“We have identified them, but they are not among either the injured or the dead.”
Terekhov said the fire, which had spread quickly, had been almost brought under control at the site.
One of the reasons for the severe fire was that a printing house was located in the building, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov said.
A furniture and paint products factory also came under the attack, Serhiy Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the regional police, said.
Moscow denies deliberately attacking civilians in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine which it launched in February 2022, although many have been killed in frequent Russian air strikes across the country.
