Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held Europe to account at an impromptu speech at Davos on January 23, warning collected EU bigwigs and the CEOs of some of the largest companies in the world that they cannot ignore building up their defences against potential Russian aggression.

Zelenskiy was not intending to participate in the annual investment confab, but scrambled to get to the Swiss ski resort at the last minute after US President Donald Trump said he was looking forward to meeting the Ukrainian president in his speech a day earlier.

Following that meeting, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner travelled to Russia for another meeting with Putin to discuss the Ukrainian peace deal. A day earlier Witkoff said there was “only one more item” amongst the 27-point peace plan (27PPP) negotiation points to resolve. Separately, Zelenskiy said in Davos the US delegation had presented the Ukrainian 20-point peace plan (20PPP) to the Kremlin.

Defences

With the Armed Forces of Russia (AFR) making the most progress on the battle since the war began in 2022, major cities like Pokrovsk falling to Russia, and more recently a massive drone and missile barrage against Ukraine’s power grid threatening to freeze Ukraine into submission, Zelenskiy is under a lot of pressure.

The shortage of men, money and materiel that has plagued the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) for several years is now becoming acute and the possibility of a military defeat at Russia’s hands without more support from the EU is looming large.

Support for Ukraine’s existential campaign against Russia is fading away. Since taking office a year ago, the Trump administration has sent no money to Kyiv. The US has also cut off arms supplies unless the EU pays for it under the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) programme, which is failing to replace crucial air defence ammo. And Bankova’s mandatory conscription programme is failing to raise enough fresh recruits as desertions soar. The €90bn EU loan agreed in December will only be enough to cover two thirds of Ukraine’s military and defence needs this year, according to experts.

Rebuke

In light of these problems, Zelenskiy issued a sharp rebuke to European leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 22, accusing them of “strategic indecision” in the face of Russian aggression and calling for the “creation of a unified European armed force.”

In one of the most forceful speeches of the summit, Zelenskiy criticised the West’s response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and warned that Europe’s failure to act decisively could leave it exposed to further threats.

“A year ago, here in Davos, I ended my speech with the words: ‘Europe must know how to defend itself.’ A year has passed. Nothing has changed,” Zelenskiy said, drawing a standing ovation from the audience.

While expressing gratitude for military and financial support already extended by allies, the Ukrainian leader questioned the political will behind decisions such as the freezing of Russian assets – a reference to Europe’s failure to approve the so-called Reparation Loan in December.

“The EU decided to freeze Russian assets indefinitely, and I am grateful for that. But when it came time to use them to defend against Russian aggression, the decision was blocked,” he said, referring to the decision by Belgium and Italy not to vote through the Reparation Loan.

Sanctions

Another bitter criticism of the EU has been its failure to tighten the sanctions noose. While the EU introduced twin sanctions on the import of Russian oil at the end of 2022, it has failed to cut off the trade completely by sanctioning Russia’s so-called shadow fleet more effectively. It introduced the $60 oil price cap sanctions, but at the same time did little to prevent EU registered oil tankers from working for Russia: around a fifth of the tankers transporting Russian oil belong to EU-member Greek shipping companies and legally accept the fat premiums Russia is offering by keeping the price of oil on their contracts below the $60 threshold by various ruses. More recently in the nineteenth sanctions package the EU has tried to close this loophole by introducing a floating rate oil price sanctions cap of 15% below market rates for the Urals blend, Russia’s main export product.

Zelenskiy also challenged the West’s failure to stop Russia’s sanctioned oil exports. “Why can Trump seize shadow fleet tankers, but Europe cannot?” he asked. “Russian oil is transported right along Europe’s shores. That oil finances Russia’s war.”

The Ukrainian president further accused Western companies and governments of indirectly aiding Russia through the continued flow of components for military production. “Many say China helps Russia — but not only China. Russia receives components from companies in Europe, the United States, and Taiwan.”

Another bug in the ointment of European sanctions is that less than 9% of international companies working in Russia at the outbreak of war have actually left the market. Even those that quit, continue to trade with Russia via third parties such as Kyrgyzstan and Turkey.

Europe’s security is Ukraine

Citing the West’s muted response to authoritarian crackdowns, Zelenskiy drew parallels between Ukraine’s war and past uprisings. “There was a lot of talk about the protests in Iran. But they were drowned in blood. The world did not help the Iranian people enough and stood aside,” he said. “Belarus in 2020 is the clearest example. No one helped its people. And now Russian Oreshnik nuclear-capable cruise missiles are stationed in Belarus, with a range covering most European capitals.”

Turning to accountability, Zelenskiy pointed out the discrepancy between how autocrats are treated globally. “[Venezuela’s former president Nicolas] Maduro is in a prison in New York. Putin is not,” he said.

Zelenskiy warned that Europe’s dependence on Nato as a security guarantor may not be sufficient in the event of a broader Russian assault. As a result of US President Donald Trump’s threats to invade Greenland, a Nato member, confidence in the strength of the treaty's Article 5 collective security guarantee has been severely undermined. As part of the ongoing peace talks with the US, Zelenskiy has insisted on real Article 5-like guarantees, and has obtained a promise of that from the US. Indeed, one of the results of Zelenskiy's impromptu meeting with Trump on January 22 appears to be that the White House has shored up that promise. However, as extensively reported by bne IntelliNews, Europe has flatly refused to offer similar guarantees to Ukraine, preferring instead to rely on weak “security assurances” and the unworkable idea of peacekeepers.

“Today, Europe relies only on faith that if danger comes, Nato will act. But no one has ever seen the alliance in action. If Putin decides to take Lithuania or strike Poland, who will respond?” Zelenskiy asked in an unusually blunt question striking to the heart of current geopolitical concerns.

He closed with a call for a major shift in European defence thinking. “Europe needs unified armed forces capable of truly defending Europe,” he said.

The Ukrainian president’s remarks echoed concerns raised by Baltic and Central European leaders over Nato’s deterrent credibility and the need for a more self-reliant European security framework. As bne IntelliNews reported, the Nordic states remain the bulwark of Ukrainian support in Europe, but since the US backed off, Europe has failed to offset the end of US military aid to Ukraine. Indeed, defence spending by Germany, which accounts for a third of all Ukraine’s support, has fallen this year for the first time since the conflict broke out.

As bne IntelliNews has reported, Europe can’t afford to take over the burden of supporting Ukraine, as most EU countries are either in recession or approaching a crisis.

Russian casualties

In the meantime, Zelenskiy intends to fight on and attempt to bleed Russia into submission, both kinetically and economically.

“I’m sharing real [Russian casualty] figures with you. The real statistic is 35,000 killed per month. 35,000 soldiers. Last year this month, it was about 14,000. Russia is not thinking about it, but we do,” Zelenskiy said. “We know that they mobilize 43,000 per month, and they begin to lose 35,000, from this 43 you have to know that about 10-15% run away and there are some wounded. Their army has stopped increasing, this is important, because of our drone operators and technology.”

       

The battle for Pokrovsk in November is a good example. While the AFR exploited the kilometre-long holes that have appeared in the AFU defence lines due to the manpower crisis, Russia was unable to consolidate its control over the key logistics hub as any occupying Russian troops that ventured onto the streets of the city are being hunted down and killed. While the AFU admits it has lost control of most of the city, Russia still cannot claim to have taken full control and the battle has turned into modern-era Stalingrad.

In parallel, since last summer, Ukraine has begun to use its new generation, more powerful drones to attack Russian refineries and hit the Kremlin in the pocket. While the campaign is unlikely to cause the Russian economy to collapse or even reduce income to the point where the Kremlin can no longer afford to fund its military operations, it has badly wounded the budget, which ended 2025 with a large 2.6% of GDP deficit, after starting the year with a mere 0.5% of GDP target.