How Volodymyr Zelensky convinced the EU to agree to SWIFT Sanctions

[speak easy]

Last edited Mon Feb 28, 2022, 03:08 AM - Edit history (1)

Volodymyr Zelensky, [a] leader of free Europe.

As the leaders of the European Union gathered for an emergency summit on Thursday night ... a handful of key leaders, notably including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, were reluctant to proceed with some of the harshest proposals ... Talk of barring Russia from the global financial messaging system known as SWIFT ... stalled amid skepticism on the part of Scholz and the leaders of Austria, Italy and Cyprus, according to officials familiar with the deliberations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations.

Then Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky [called] into the meeting via teleconference with a bracing appeal that left some of the world-weary politicians with watery eyes. In just five minutes, Zelensky — speaking from the battlefield of Kyiv — pleaded with European leaders for an honest assessment of his country’s ambition to join the European Union and for genuine help in its fight with the Russian invaders. Ukraine needed its neighbors to step up with food, ammunition, fuel, sanctions, all of it.
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“It was extremely, extremely emotional,” said a European official briefed on the call. “He was essentially saying, ‘Look, we are here dying for European ideals.’” Before ending the video call, Zelensky told the gathering matter-of-factly that it might be the last time they saw him alive, according to a senior European official who was present.

Just that quickly, Zelensky’s personal appeal overwhelmed the resistance from European leaders to imposing measures that could drive the Russian economy into a state of near collapse. The result has been a rapid-fire series of developments boosting Ukraine’s fight to hold off the Russian military and shattering the limits on European assertiveness in national security affairs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/02/27/russia-ukraine-sanctions-swift-central-bank/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. That is a very interesting and thorough article. I found it easy to follow.

I recommend everyone here read it. It really shows what's happening and why. There is some historical background too.