Ukrainian president warns that Russian expansionism is global problem

The Ukrainian president warned Tuesday that Russian expansionism is a global problem and called on the support of the international community to confront it.

In his annual State of the Nation speech, President Petro Poroshenko said that Ukraine would continue to rely on the international community for help in the fight against expansionism.

“Ukraine will continue to need strong international support in the fight against Russian aggression”, Poroshenko said.

He highlighted Ukraine’s close cooperation with NATO and said his country aimed to be integrated into the Alliance.

The President emphasized the need to strengthen the international coalition supporting Ukraine and to prevent the lifting of sanctions on Russia until the territorial integrity of his country was restored.

According to him, the only way to reestablish territorial integrity was to go down a political and diplomatic route, adding that negotiations had to be multilateral and only made sense if Russia participated.

He denounced Moscow’s “incessant increase” of its military presence at its borders with Ukraine, and warned that a “high risk of armed aggression” remained.

Poroshenko said Russia had about 38,500 men, more than 600 tanks and 1,250 armored vehicles, 750 artillery units and 300 rocket launchers stationed in Luhansk and Donetsk, the conflict zones in the east where around 10,000 people have died since April 2014.