Ukraine war update, March 24: Zelenskyy calls for global protests against Russia’s invasion; Biden travels to Europe

Russia’s attack on Ukraine is an attack on freedom everywhere: Zelenskyy

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for global protests against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a new video late on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said Russia’s attack on Ukraine was an attack on freedom everywhere.

“From this day and after that, show your standing. Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities. Come in the name of peace. Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life. Come to your schoolyards, your streets. Say that people matter, freedom matters, peace matters, Ukraine matters,” he said.

.@ZelenskyyUa: The war of #Russia is not only the war against #Ukraine.🇷🇺started the war against freedom as it is.

That’s why I ask you to stand against the war! Starting from March 24 – exactly one month after the Russian invasion

All as one together who want to stop the war! pic.twitter.com/BUyqY3DJ37

— MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) March 23, 2022

The Indian Express’s Krishn Kaushik is reporting from Lviv in Ukraine. Read his report here.

In Europe, Biden to seek more action against Russia

US President Joe Biden is in Europe for a series of meetings with western allies. He will address a NATO summit, then meet EU leaders, and a G7 summit is scheduled later in the day. He is expected to announce in Brussels today a further set of sanctions against Russia, this time against Russian parliamentarians. Biden is also expected to ask European leaders for more aggressive economic actions against Russia.

“The president is travelling to Europe to ensure we stay united, to cement our collective resolve, to send a powerful message that we are prepared and committed to this for as long as it takes,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the US media.

A woman cleans the staircase of broken glass at an apartment building damaged by bombing in Kyiv, Ukraine,Wednesday, March 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

NATO will not become a party to the war: German Chancellor

As Biden arrived, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the Bundestag, the German parliament, that Ukraine could count on Germany’s help, but made it clear that NATO would not engage in a direct military confrontation with Russia. He also ruled out an immediate end to German’s import of Russian gas and oil.

Zelenskyy has asked NATO several times to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine to prevent Russian bombardment, but this would pit NATO head-to-head with Russia, and would draw several European countries directly into the war.

“NATO will not become a party to the war,” Scholz said, adding there was a consensus on this in the alliance.

Scholz said sanctions must not hit European countries harder than the Russian leadership. “We will end this dependence (on Russian energy) as quickly as we can, but to do that from one day to the next would mean plunging our country and all of Europe into a recession,” he said, warning that bringing the imports to a sudden end would put at risk industries and hundreds of thousands of jobs across Europe.

Russia is reported to have exported 168 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe through Nordstream 1 and through pipelines transiting through Ukraine in 2020. Germany was the biggest buyer at 56 billion cubic meters. Europe imports 41 per cent of its energy needs from Russia.

This is the last Ukraine war update from me.