In an interview with the German ZDF, Volodymyr Zelensky commented on Joe Bidenʼs statement that the Ukrainian president allegedly "did not want to hear" warnings about the danger of a major war with Russia.
"Ukraine was not provided with weapons and airspace was closed, despite the fact that the Ukrainian authorities spoke about a possible blockade of the Black Sea of Russia and requested air defense systems long before the full-scale Russian invasion," the president said.
According to Zelensky, Ukraine can address a counter-issue to European and American leaders, saying that Kyiv asked for precautionary sanctions, but this did not happen.
"If they had heard me, Ukraine would have had a better chance of stopping the Russian invasion, the signals you are talking about were all different. Look, if everything happened if everyone warned Ukraine that there would be a full-scale invasion tomorrow, the question arises: why the airspace was not closed, why we were not provided with weapons before this invasion and why preventive sanctions were not imposed," said the President.
However, Zelensky stressed that he was grateful to all partners for the enormous amount of assistance they provided at the beginning of the Russian invasion.