New Zealand tells Zelensky it will help rebuild Ukraine: ‘we asked ourselves, what if it was us?’
New Zealand tells Zelensky it will help rebuild Ukraine: ‘we asked ourselves, what if it was us?’
- The Ukrainian president pleaded for New Zealand’s help on Wednesday to repair the environmental destruction being caused by Russia’s invasion
- PM Jacinda Ardern said her country’s support for Ukraine wasn’t determined by geography or diplomatic ties and vowed to ‘be with you as you rebuild’
Published: 10:14am, 14 Dec, 2022
New Zealand pledged more support for Ukraine on Wednesday as President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the Pacific nation’s lawmakers to help clear his war-ravaged nation of mines and other unexploded ordnance, and focus on the environmental destruction being caused by the conflict.
In a video address to lawmakers who packed the debating chamber at 8am on Wednesday, Zelensky described Russia’s nearly year-old invasion as an “ecocide” that would have lasting impact and implored Wellington and others to step up aid.
“As of now, 174,000 square kilometres (67,000 square miles) of Ukrainian territory are contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance,” he said. That is an area roughly the size of Cambodia, Syria or Uruguay.
Zelensky urged New Zealand – whose military has extensive experience in mine clearing – to help lead the clean-up effort.
“There is no real peace for any child who can die from a hidden Russian anti-personnel mine,” he said, adding that it was possible to rebuild a nation’s economy and infrastructure “but you can’t rebuild destroyed nature, just as you can’t restore destroyed lives.”
The Black Sea and neighbouring Sea of Azov were also littered with mines “and have lost hundreds of thousands of living creatures, those who died as the result of the hostilities,” he said.
Zelensky has addressed dozens of foreign parliaments over the past 10 months, seeking to sustain and strengthen a global coalition in support of Ukraine’s defence efforts. He is pushing for a 10-point peace plan that, as well as environmental protection, including items such as nuclear safety and justice.
New Zealand has so far supplied Kyiv with modest amounts of equipment and military training but has sent more than 100 personnel to Europe to give the Ukrainian military advice on soldiering.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Zelensky her country’s support for Ukraine wasn’t determined by geography or diplomatic ties.
“Our judgment was a simple one,” she said. “We asked ourselves the question, ‘What if it was us?’”
She said that in such a scenario, New Zealand would want nations in the international community to use their voices, “regardless of their political systems, their distance, or their size.”
“I want to acknowledge your further calls for support, especially around the long-term impacts of war, including the long-term impact on the environment,” Ardern said.
“We are with you as you seek peace, but we will also be with you as you rebuild.”
New Zealand announced it was providing another NZ$3 million (US$2 million) in humanitarian aid through the International Committee of the Red Cross to help Ukraine through the winter, adding to the NZ$8 million it had already provided.
Zelensky, who became just the second foreign leader to address New Zealand’s parliament after Australia’s Julia Gillard did so in 2011, thanked the gathered lawmakers for their contributions to Ukraine’s war effort so far and offered a message of hope.
“Various dictators and aggressors, they always fail to realise the strength of the free world’s governments,” he said.
New Zealand’s lawmakers finished the address by singing a World War II-era song in the Indigenous Māori language.
Reporting by Associated Press, Agence France-Presse
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