Zelenskyy says he can’t consider Russia-Ukraine war equal to conflict in Gaza

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that he cannot consider the Russia-Ukraine war equal to the Israel-Palestine conflict in Gaza.

“Russia’s occupation and invasion of Ukraine did not begin with a terrorist attack by people with Ukrainian citizenship on the territory of Russia,” Zelenskyy said during an end-of-year news conference in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in response to a question by Anadolu.

Zelenskyy argued that in the case of the Russia-Ukraine war, people lived in their own independent state and “the enemy came in and killed our people.”

“So these are different things,” he said.

Zelenskyy also said that Ukraine recognizes the independence of both Israeli and Palestinian people, as well as the “tragedy” ongoing in the region and its humanitarian consequences.

Israel’s air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas have killed at least 19,667 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 52,586 others, according to health authorities in the enclave.

The war has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory’s housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.

Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack, according to Israeli authorities, while more than 130 hostages remain in captivity.