Strip Putin of ‘money and power’ to restore peace, Zelenskyy urges

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the European Union to “push harder” against Russian President Vladimir Putin and deprive him of his “money and power” to force Russia into “meaningful negotiations” to end the war.

“Putin does not value people or rules. He values only money and power. These are the things we must take away from him to restore peace,” Zelenskyy said on Tuesday in a virtual speech before the European Parliament to mark the war’s 1,000 days.

“No one can enjoy calm waters amid a storm, and we must do everything to end this war fairly and justly,” he added.

During his six-minute intervention, Zelenskyy called on political leaders to avoid being distracted by national elections and focus their energy on weakening the Kremlin’s war machine, which was recently boosted by the addition of an estimated 11,000 North Korean soldiers to fight alongside Russia in the Kursk region.

This North Korean contingent, Zelenskyy warned on Tuesday, might soon expand to 100,000 forces. (Bloomberg previously reported the same number citing G20 sources.)

“While some European leaders think about, you know, some elections or something like this at Ukraine’s expense, Putin is focused on winning this war. He will not stop on his own,” Zelenskyy told lawmakers. “The more time he has, the worse the conditions become. Every ‘today’ is the best moment to push Russia harder.”

North Korea’s direct involvement has set alarm bells ringing across the West and reportedly made US President Joe Biden drop his long-held veto and allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with US-supplied ATACMS missiles. Germany, however, has stuck to its opposition to provide Taurus long-range missiles.

Building on these developments, Zelenskyy asked allies to let Ukraine fire against military depots, air bases and missile factories on Russian soil. He also pleaded for stronger sanctions against Russia’s “shadow fleet”, which Moscow covertly employs to skirt restrictions on its oil trade, and the confiscation of Russia’s frozen assets.

The EU continues to resist calls for the confiscation of sovereign assets, which are worth €210 billion across the bloc. Instead, Brussels has designed a novel plan to use the windfall profits earned by assets to gradually repay a €45 billion loan for Ukraine.

“Do not forget how much Europe is capable of achieving,” Zelenskyy told MEPs as he laid out his proposals to “push Russia towards a just peace”.

“Every blow and every threat from Russia must be met with firm sanctions,” he said.

Zelenskyy, who delivered his virtual speech in English, thanked the European Parliament for its constant support and for “ensuring that not a single one of the thousand days of this terrible war became a day of betrayal of our shared European values.”

“We have proven that these values are not just words, not something abstract. European values and the European way of life, when transformed into action, protect the lives of real people,” Zelenskyy said.

“We have succeeded not only in preventing Putin from taking Ukraine but also in defending the freedom of all European nations. Even with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un by his side, Putin remains smaller than the united strength of Europe.”

Zelenskyy’s speech began and ended with a standing ovation from MEPs, many of whom were wearing t-shirts and lapel pins decorated with the Ukrainian flag. The president has addressed the Parliament on several occasions, most notably in the early days of the invasion, when he vowed: “No one is going to break us.”

Roberta Metsola, the Parliament’s president, praised Zelenskyy’s “true bravery” and insisted any peace deal should be based “on justice, dignity and the concept of ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.’”

“Today, we send a clear, simple message: we stand with Ukraine, until freedom, until real peace,” Metsola said.

The 1,000-day mark comes at a critical time for Ukraine, with Russian troops making substantial gains in the East and renewing its bombardment against the country’s energy system, which many see as a strategy to unleash a humanitarian crisis in winter.

The grim anniversary comes as President-elect Donald Trump prepares his return to the White House. Trump campaigned on a promise to heavily revise America’s military and financial assistance to Ukraine and strike a deal to end the war in “24 hours”, without offering any details on how this would be achieved.

In a recent radio interview, Zelenskyy expressed his hope that the war would conclude in 2025 through “diplomatic means”.