Name: Zelensky: European unity is 'best weapon' against Russia | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-02-14T17:15:32.000Z
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his speech that Europe's unity is the best weapon against Russia's aggression.

There is no country in Europe that could rely only on its own technology and money to defend itself in a full scale war.

That is why while we invest in interceptors and protection, Russia invests in breaking unity between all of us.

Unity in Europe, Unity in the Euro Atlantic community.

Because our unity is the best interceptor against Russia's aggressive plans.

Vladimir Zelinsky there speaking in the last hour while listening across to all of the speeches this morning is Kashima Dira who is in Munich outside the Security Security conference.

You're hearing that echoed by Volodymyr Zelinsky.

You heard that again echoed by Secure Starmer.

The importance of Europe coming together.

And indeed, actually when we heard from Marco Rubio, everybody was waiting with bated breath.

As we saw from J.D. vance last year, he was much more conciliatory in tone.

You've got to pull up your sleeves and increase your defense spending because ultimately the US is no longer the world policeman, that transatlantic, that world order is changing.

We're very much hearing that from Zelinsky as well.

A lot to unpick though, because there are undercurrents running through this.

My guest is the Director General of the think tank Rousey.

We heard Zelensky just moments ago giving that speech and once again he had to remind everybody that Ukraine didn't start this war.

He had to remind everybody that Ukraine didn't start the war.

And he also had to remind Europeans that Ukraine is fighting on their behalf.

Every day that a Ukrainian falls over, dies, that's keeping the Russians away from the perimeter of NATO and the periphery of Europe.

So it's really important that Europeans take that message and stop enabling Russian oil and gas to continue to flow and to fund the war.

And it's also very important that Ukraine is integrated into Europe, even if that's not NATO or EU membership.

We need things like co production, joint production on weapons, drones.

I think that was the message he was trying to get across today.

Ukraine can't continue to bleed from Europe forever.

And it's certainly something that was seen when he went to that factory, Ukrainian German factory, where they make drones that again sent back to Ukraine.

They can't have those in Ukraine because they know that they're going to be attacked.

Ultimately the threat of Russia very much there.

Was that, was that shown during Marco Rubio speech at all?

Any mention of Russia in the Rubio speech was, was actually a bit absent.

And I'd say that Under Secretary, Secretary of Defense for Policy in the Pentagon.

Colby similarly sort of talked around the Russia challenge or even the China challenge.

They focused a bit more on the transatlantic relationship.

A real, you know, something you'd hear more from traditional Republicans in terms of the importance of the transatlantic relationships, the importance, as you said, of Europe stepping up.

But really I think the undercurrent there is what are they really thinking with regard to Russia and China think?

Under Secretary Colby called Russia manageable for threat, which is not something that I think most Europeans on the front line would, would agree with.

Kaia Kallas was speaking earlier and when asked whether she thinks the Ukraine war will end, she said she hopes so.

We've got this conference of world leaders and yet it feels like pleasantries.

It all feels very vague and I think tangible is coming out.

Yes, it is very frustrating, particularly if we think that so called peace negotiations have been going on for a year now.

We're really in no different place than we were a year ago.

In fact, Russia has gained minimal ground.

More Ukrainians are dead, more Russians are dead.

It's really hard to see how this ends without first and foremost a cease fire.

And I heard President Zelensky speaking yesterday and he really stressed that in order for any sort of election to move forward or any sort of credible security guarantees to be be put in place, the first step is actually not a peace agreement but a cease fire.

Because Donald Trump is pushing hard for some kind of referendum for some kind of election by May in order to end the war by June.

Zelensky said last night that they probably need at least half a year to prepare for the these elections.

They're under martial law to some extent.

There are Ukrainians living abroad who would want to have a voice in this.

And so it's while it's tempting to try to push for A resolution to the Ukraine contacts conflict, for example, before the US Midterms in November.

I think we need to be a bit more patient.

It's also important to stress at this conference we have been hearing another voice of quite a large Democrat container contingency here, Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, Alexandria Stasio Cortez.

Also here, they're talking about the pushback.

They're urging Europe to push back against the Trump rhetoric.

Because Trump right now is obviously the president.

I appreciate that they want to see Europe become a bit more vocal about its own needs and what it can, can achieve, both with regard to Ukraine and NATO and European security and defense.

But ultimately, I think the resistance, and

I say this as an American, I think ultimately any sort of resistance to any policies that they're unhappy with has to come from within the United States.

We need to hear the American public stepping up.

We need to hear bipartisan voices in Congress stepping up, as we did on Greenland.

That policy became very unpopular, not just with politicians and the public, but with the market.

So it's helpful if Europeans stand their ground, but

it's more helpful if people like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Gavin Newsom continue to speak with one voice on the democratic side.

One thing that we did hear something very, very concrete was, was from Secure Starmer a little bit earlier on, he announced today at the conference that the UK is going to deploy the UK Carrier strike group to the North Atlantic and High north in operation with the us, Canada and other NATO allies.

That's something that people can genuinely understand.

It's really, really encouraging and positive to see Prime Minister Starmer stepping up in this way.

First, with regard to Ukraine, the UK has been a leader there, but

also with regard to the North Atlantic and now with regard to Europe, I think we heard a very strong message.

he basically said the years of Brexit are over and the UK is going to be leaning into the relationship with continental Europe.

I think that's very important as well as the money behind it and the capabilities behind it.

Because European defence, as even von der Leyen said, is not going to happen without the United Kingdom as part of that.

So we need to see more UK as the US leadership diminishes.

Rachel, always very good to get your thoughts, your analysis, because it's been another big day here at the Munich Security Conference for the time being.