Against the background of the Ukrainian offensive President Volodymyr Zelenskyy campaigned for the trust of the population in the Russian-occupied territories. “Russian propagandists intimidate people in the territories still controlled by the occupiers, claiming that Ukraine will consider almost anyone who stays in the occupied territories as collaborators. Absolutely crazy stuff, ”said Zelenskyj in his daily video speech on Monday. Anyone who hasn’t offered their services to the Russians has nothing to fear, he said.
The 44-year-old emphasized that there was only isolated support for the Russian occupiers, although “hundreds of thousands” were temporarily under the occupying power. In doing so, he contradicted the Russian narrative that the majority of people in the four occupied Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia aspired to Russia. With this justification, Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin annexed the regions after holding sham referendums.
Selenskyj reported on further recaptures by the Ukrainian army and announced the payment of pensions and social benefits in the regained territories. Ukraine, which was badly hit financially by the war, secured financial aid from the European Union worth five billion euros on Monday. The Vice President of the EU Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, had announced that the money would be used for “immediate liquidity bottlenecks as well as wage and pension payments”.
