Zelensky says ‘indifference kills along with hatred’

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky marked Holocaust Remembrance Day on Friday by urging the world to unite against “indifference” and “hatred,” nearly one year into Russia´s invasion of his country.

“Today, as always, Ukraine honours the memory of millions of victims of the Holocaust. We know and remember that indifference kills along with hatred,” Zelensky said in a video statement.

Zelensky, who is of Jewish descent and from the pre-dominantly Russian-speaking south of the country, did not refer directly to Russia´s invasion in his address. Moscow has routinely accused Ukraine of harbouring neo-Nazis and justified its invasion saying the country needed to be “de-Nazified”.

It also employed World War II-era terminology to accuse Ukraine of carrying out a “genocide” of Russian speakers in the eastern Donbas region.Meanwhile, Poland will deliver an additional 60 tanks to Kyiv to help it fend off Russia´s aggression, in a move hailed on Friday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Thank you... Poland for these important decisions to deliver to Ukraine 60 Polish tanks -- 30 of which are the famous PT-91 Twardy, along with 14 Leopards,” Zelensky said on Twitter. Ukraine has also been promised battle tanks from Germany and the US, announced earlier this week.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki revealed Warsaw´s contribution in an interview with Canada´s CTV News on Thursday. “Right now, we are ready to send 60 of our modernised tanks, 30 of them PT-91. And on top of those tanks, 14 tanks, Leopard 2 tanks, from in our possession,” he said.

He added that since the start of the war, Poland had “sent 250 tanks... or even more than that” to Ukraine. The tanks that have already been sent by Poland are mainly T-72 Soviet models, of which the PT-91 are a modernised version.