‘We want to live’: Zelensky asks Canada for more help in speech to Parliament

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took Canadians to the front lines Tuesday during his address to Parliament.

The speech was carried live on 980 CJME and 650 CKOM.

“Imagine that at 4 a.m., each of you, you start hearing bomb explosions, severe explosions,” Zelensky said as he described the opening night of Russia’s attack on his country nearly three weeks ago. “Justin (Trudeau), can you imagine you (and) your children hearing all these severe explosions?”

He prefaced those comments by explaining he wants Canadians to be able to understand his feelings, and those of all Ukrainians.

He said the past 20 days of “full-scale aggression by the Russian federation” and past eight years of fighting in the Donbas region have worn on his country.

“Can you only imagine?” Zelenksy asked repeatedly throughout his address, describing learning of death tolls and infrastructure destruction.

In his 16-minute address via video link to Canadian parliamentarians and invited guests, Zelensky thanked Canadians for their support but pleaded for more — including a no-fly zone to stop Russian planes and missiles.

He said Russia is trying to “annihilate” Ukraine, so he continued to ask Western powers for help in the battle.

“We want to live and we want to be victorious,” Zelensky said. “We want to prevail for the sake of life.

“This is a war to subjugate a people.”

Zelensky said Ukraine has seen memorials, schools, hospitals and housing destroyed, and 97 children killed.

“Of course I don’t wish this on anyone but this is the reality in which we live,” Zelensky said.

Zelenksy’s tone became more stern as he addressed the Canadian prime minister about the “dire straits” Ukraine is in, and pleaded for specific help to aid the fight.

“Can you imagine when you call your friend, the nation, and you ask, ‘Please close the sky, close the airspace.’ How many more of those missiles have to fall on our cities until you make this happen?” he asked.

“Basically what I’m trying to say … you all need to do more to stop Russia, to protect Ukraine and, by doing that, to protect Europe from Russian threat.”

Zelensky said this war will help Ukraine see who its “real friends” are.

Grateful to Canada for the supplies and humanitarian aid already sent as well as the sanctions imposed on Russia and many high-ranking officials, Ukraine’s president pleaded for Canada to continue with steadfast assistance for his country.

“We are not asking for much. We are asking for justice, for real support which will help us to prevail, to defend, to save life,” Zelensky said, pleading with Canadians to understand the importance of closing Ukrainian airspace to Russia.

“I hope you can understand. I hope you can increase your efforts (and) your sanctions so they will not have a single dollar to fund their war effort,” he added.

More than three million people already have fled Ukraine as the war rages. Saskatchewan has said it will take as many refugees as it can to help.

Zelensky called on Canada to not stop in its efforts to restore peace to his peaceful country and to be part of more than just a historical moment.

— With files from The Canadian Press