On Saturday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Switzerland to take action against Russian oligarchs who are responsible for Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. On March 19, Zelenskyy talked to hundreds of anti-war protestors in Bern, Switzerland, via live stream. The Ukrainian president exhorted the crowd to combat evil, claiming that if they did, the Russian businessmen’s assets and accounts would be fully frozen.
He stated, “The money of the people who unleashed this war is in your banks. Your banks are where the money of the people who unleashed this war lies. That is painful. That is also a fight against evil, that their accounts are frozen. That would also be a fight, and you can do this.”
Further on March 19, Zelenskyy stated that the ongoing discussions with Russia are not easy or pleasant, but they are crucial. Zelenskyy claimed on Saturday that he briefed French President Emmanuel Macron on the status of the Russia-Ukraine talks. Moreover, he remarked that the siege of Mariupol will go down in history for what he calls Russian military war crimes.
Russia-Ukraine war
Further, as the Russia-Ukraine war entered its fourth week, Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a dire warning to Russia, claiming that the country will bear the brunt of the conflict for decades. While Zelenskyy urged Moscow to engage in genuine bilateral talks and end its invasion of Ukraine, Russia announced that its hypersonic missiles had destroyed a large underground missile and aircraft ammunition storage facility in western Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk area.
Meanwhile, the United Nations’ World Food Programme stated on Saturday that humanitarian agencies are having difficulty reaching those besieged in Ukrainian cities surrounded by Russian forces. According to the Ukrainian parliament, 115 Ukrainian children have been slain since the Russian invasion began. “115 children fell victim to the war unleashed by Russia and Putin. More than 140 young Ukrainians were injured. These numbers are not figures but the scale of grief and the broken destinies of hundreds of Ukrainian families,” the Ukrainian parliament tweeted.
The number of Russians killed in the ongoing conflict is estimated to be in the millions. During Russia’s five-day war with Georgia in 2008, 64 people were killed. It lost nearly 15,000 troops in Afghanistan over a ten-year period, and over a decade of fighting in Chechnya, Russia lost more than 11,000 troops.