Ukraine’s first lady presses Davos leaders for Western aid

DAVOS, Switzerland (AN) — Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukraine's President Zelenskyy, and other leaders appealed to the World Economic Forum's political and business elites to support her nation as a fresh wave of Russian attacks on civilians and infrastructure make for a brutal winter.

Zelenska took the podium on Tuesday, the forum's first full day, to deliver a "special message" to the thousands of government leaders and officials, business executives and others spending the week at the posh gathering in the Swiss mountain resort.

She led a large Ukrainian delegation of ministers and mayors to Davos, which at 1,560 meters is Europe's highest city, where a heavily guarded Ukraine House, along a downtown main street, also drew curious visitors and crowds.

Davos vs. Ukraine

The city of 11,000 is overrun when WEF comes to town, but it's like winning the lottery for the hotels, home owners and shops that rent storefronts to the world's hottest brands.

The streets of Davos, which were filled with well-heeled VIPs disembarking from chauffered black luxury vehicles under the protection of police and private security, stood in stark contrast to the carnage, hunger and suffering afflicting people from war in Ukraine.

“What you all have in common is that you are genuinely influential,” Zelenska told the Davos elite. “But there is something that separates you, namely that not all of you use this influence, or sometimes use it in a way that separates you even more.”

Her husband, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spoke by videoconference to the forum on Wednesday, saying Western aid and weapons must move faster so that they can provide help that exceeds the damage done by Russia's attacks.

"Tragedies are outpacing life. The tyranny is outpacing the democracy. Russia needed less than one second to start the war. The world needed days to react with first sanctions," he said. "Mobilization of the world must outpace the next military mobilization of our joint enemy."

As long as it takes

Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin, in an appearance at WEF, separately urged the West to make it clear to Russia's President Vladimir Putin that “we will support (Ukraine) as long as needed — five years, 10 years, 15 years, whatever it takes — we will support Ukraine, and this will not stop.”

Marin, whose nation shares a long border with Russia, made it clear why her nation and Sweden applied for NATO membership. If Ukraine had been a NATO member, she said, Russia would not have invaded.

"We want to become a member of NATO because we don't ever again want war in Finland. We have been at war with Russia before," she said. "We don't know when the war will end, but we have to make sure the Ukrainians win. I don't think there's any other choice. If Russia wins this war, we will see decades of similar wars.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen exhorted government and business leaders to lend "every helping hand" possible to Ukraine.

“It is a perfect opportunity to take investment and reform to pave this way for Ukraine towards the European Union,” she told WEF. “We need every helping hand on board. Ukraine deserves to have as much support as possible.”

Zelenska, whose nation has now been at war with Russia for nearly a war, said it's outrageous that Russia's aggression can lead to thousands of civilians killed, millions of people displaced and disruptions to global food and energy supplies.

“There is a right to food that every human being has," she said, "and it’s an insult for mankind and for human nature itself, that in the 21st century, it is possible for us to have mass starvation simply because because there is a targeted aggression of some countries."

This story has been updated with additional details.