This Wednesday, March 23, Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to French parliamentarians for several tens of minutes. The Ukrainian president called for help and asked French companies to leave Russia. He also mentioned Mariupol, comparing the state of the city to that of Verdun during the First World War.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has taken to speaking in front of the parliamentarians of each country to express the disarray in which Ukraine finds itself and to ask for more aid. This Wednesday, March 23, the Ukrainian president had an appointment with the French Parliament. An interview lasting several tens of minutes during which he once again asked for help and called on “France to end this war against freedom” and to exercise its “leadership”.
Mariupol compared to Verdun
Since the fighting began on February 24, Mariupol has become a martyr city. Facing the parliamentarians, Volodymyr Zelensky explained that the bombardments in this southeastern port city reminded him of “the ruins of Verdun, as in the photos of the First World War.”
Zelensky asks French companies to leave Russia
Before parliamentarians, Volodymyr Zelensky urged French companies established in Russia to stop supporting the Russian “war machine” and to leave this country, citing Renault, Auchan and Leroy Merlin. “French companies must leave the Russian market. Renault, Auchan, Leroy Merlin and others, they must stop sponsoring Russia’s war machine” in Ukraine, he said in a speech broadcast in videoconference in front of French deputies and senators.
“They must stop financing the murder of children and women, the rape,” he insisted. “Everyone will remember that values are worth more than profits,” he warned.
