Zelenskiy demands to shun Russia, invest in Ukraine at WEF meet

Bloomberg

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia’s economy should be shut off from the world and invited global investors to shift resources into Ukraine to help rebuild the country from the devastation wrought by Vladimir Putin’s war.
“This is really the moment when it is decided whether brute force will rule the world,” the Ukrainian leader said in a keynote address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. If force does win out, “there is no need for further meetings in Davos,” he said.
Nearly three months after Russia began laying waste to Ukraine’s economy and infrastructure, the country on the eastern border of Nato and the European Union is a dominant topic at this year’s WEF. Along with Zelenskiy’s speech, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko are taking part in many of the official events.
Zelenskiy said nations should set a precedent by preemptively imposing sanctions against potential aggressors. He demanded they shut off all trade with Moscow with measures including a full ban on buying its oil and gas, restrictions on all Russian banks and a “complete withdrawal of all businesses.”
Resources should be redeployed to Ukraine as part of a rebuilding project on a scale of the US-backed investment in Europe after World War II,
Zelenskiy said, quoting George C Marshall, whose plan laid
the foundation of the continent’s recovery.
“You will access not only a market of 40 million consumers, but also to the EU market,” Zelenskiy said.
As Russian forces make some advances in eastern and southern Ukraine, Zelenskiy said that as many as 100 soldiers were dying each day in some of the most severe battles.