Ukraine is preparing countermeasure against Russian intentions: Zelenskyy

By Ahmet Gencturk

ANKARA (AA) – Ukraine’s president said Wednesday that his country is analyzing Russia’s intentions and is preparing a significant countermeasure.

“We are analyzing the intentions of the occupiers and are preparing a countermeasure -- an even more powerful countermeasure than now,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address.

The situation in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions as well as Crimea and frontline territories are the “main issues,” he noted, adding that providing the armed forces with new equipment and ammunition was discussed by the country’s political and military leadership.

Reiterating that around six million subscribers in most regions of the country and in Kyiv are disconnected from electricity, Zelenskyy said: “I separately held a meeting on energy and communication issues. We record the results of what has already been done to protect our systems. We are preparing new solutions.”

He especially thanked Canada, which will contribute CAN$500 million ($372.6 million) to the country’s budget, and Germany, which recognized the Holodomor famine of the early 1930s as a genocide of the Ukrainian people.

Zelenskyy lastly urged Germany to transfer Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine.

​​​​​​​The Holodomor famine is considered one of the most painful events in the history of Ukraine.

At least 3.9 million Ukrainians starved to death between 1932 and 1933 as a result of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s policies, according to the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.

The Soviet Union implemented the collectivization of its agricultural sector between 1928 and 1940 to integrate individual landholdings and labor into collectively controlled and state-controlled farms.