West has 'double standards' on air defense for Ukraine, says Zelenskyy

He said this in an interview with Brazilian journalists.

"What is the main issue of double standards? Politics in general is about double standards. And unfortunately, this is how it turns out. In the issue of defending Ukraine, there is more politics, and in the issue of defending Israel, as we have seen, there was pragmatism. We have always advocated that our partners and allies should be partners and allies, pragmatic, who would understand that in order to protect Ukraine, we need to use all our capabilities to influence the protection of the sky," Zelenskyy said.

In his opinion, allies should use not only political, financial, sanctions, but also defence capabilities.

"When we talked from the first day of the war about closing the skies, protecting Ukraine, we were told that we could do this, otherwise we would be involved in a war with Russia, because you are not a NATO country, and we are NATO countries. The story with Israel is absolutely pragmatic, they had to destroy everything that was flying at the heads of the Israelis. Well done for destroying it, and thank God the people are alive. But nevertheless, this is a double standard. Everyone forgot at this moment that Israel is not a NATO country. I emphasise once again, thank God that they were destroyed," the president said.

According to Zelenskyy, during the downing of the Iranian drones, the allies showed their full power, "they showed how it can be."

"And after that, we can discuss for a long time that, first of all, it was not true that Iran's missiles were flying over other countries where allied bases are located, and therefore they shot down everything before Israel, they were defending this space above their bases. But all this would be, frankly, a double standard. Unfortunately, at this point, values were divided. Unfortunately, at this moment it is a demonstration of different people, as if we are different people, as if we have different lives. And it seems to me that this was the worst moment in this situation. Not a defence, I emphasise. We demanded it ourselves. They demonstrated that the technology is enough to shoot down hundreds of missiles and Iranian Shaheds. This demonstration is just wonderful. It should be a demonstration for Russia," the President said.

As Zelenskyy reminded, Russian missiles have repeatedly entered the airspace of Poland and Romania, but there was no reaction.

"This speaks of double standards, unfortunately," the head of state stressed.

• On the night of Saturday to Sunday, Iran launched drones and missiles at Israel.
• After that, US President Joe Biden said that the United States was committed to Israel's security, ceasefire and hostage release, and National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said that the United States did not intend to shoot down Iranian kamikaze drones, as it did with its allies during Iran's attack on Israel, because the war in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine are of a different nature.