'You Will Repay Us Everything': Zelensky Demands Russia Pay Ukraine Reparations for War

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued an address to the Russian people on Thursday, according to state media, in which he announced that Russia would pay “reparations” and rebuild “everything” the ongoing war has destroyed in Ukraine.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014, colonizing its Crimean Peninsula and supporting violent separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk, regions of eastern Ukraine. Last week, Putin announced that Russia would officially recognize Donetsk and Luhansk as sovereign states and that the pro-Russia separatists would receive recognition as sovereign governments. He then announced that those governments had requested Russian military assistance against Zelensky’s “Nazi” forces (Zelensky is the first Jewish president of Ukraine and a descendent of World War II veterans who fought Nazi Germany, as he has repeatedly responded to Russia’s allegations).

The tone of Zelensky’s speech on Thursday, as reported by the government news site Ukrinform, was significantly less conciliatory than his address to the Russian people last week shortly after Putin began a full-scale assault of Ukraine, in which he emphasized friendly relations between Ukrainian and Russian people and urged Russians to pressure Putin to stop the war. The shift in tone aligns with that of statements from Ukrainian outlets on Wednesday declaring that Russian soldiers would be “slaughtered like pigs” if they attempted to surrender. Ukrainian government social media outlets are actively encouraging civilians to make Molotov cocktails, build roadblocks, and otherwise participate in the war.