Zelenskyy slams the West's sanctions as 'not enough,' calls for more companies to stop doing business with Russia

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed German politicians on Thursday.
• He criticized Western sanctions as "obviously not enough to stop this war."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed Germany's parliament on Thursday, telling lawmakers that existing sanctions are "not enough."

He also said that Western companies should not still be doing businesses in Russia, which indirectly finances Russia's war.

Zelenskyy told the Bundestag on Thursday that he was "grateful" for the support of German lawmakers and the German public, but also criticized the country for what he said was not enough action in response to Russia's invasion.

"Why are overseas states closer to us than you are?," he asked. He called on Germany's chancellor to take actions his "descendants will be proud of."

Zelenskyy said that he was addressing Germany "after numerous meetings, negotiations, statements and requests. After steps in support, some of which are overdue."

He said that sanctions brought in are "obviously not enough to stop this war."

Zelenskyy also noted "how many ties your companies still have with Russia."

He said later in his speech: "I am grateful to the German businessmen who put morality and humanity above accounting. Above the economy."

He said that when Ukraine asked countries to sanction Russia before it invaded, they did not do so in time.

"When we asked for preventative sanctions, we appealed to Europe, we appealed to many countries. We turned to you ... We saw delays. We felt resistance," Zelenskyy said.

He said he could tell countries did not want to take those steps to avoid hurting their own economy, but that they ended up supporting "the country that has once again brought a brutal war to Europe."

He said that Russia was trying to destroy "everything we live by and everything we live for" in Ukraine, and was not distinguishing between military and civilian areas.

"They just destroy everything there," he said.

He also invoked Germany's history, comparing the separation between Ukraine and its allies to the Berlin Wall erected in the Cold war.

"During the three weeks of war for our lives, for our freedom, we became convinced of what we had felt before. And what you probably do not all notice yet. You are like behind the wall again," hes said.

"The world may not have seen so clearly yet, but you are separated from us by a kind of wall. Not a Berlin Wall, but a wall in the middle of Europe between freedom and a lack thereof," he said.

"And this wall is getting taller with every bomb that falls on our land, on Ukraine. With every decision that is not made for the sake of peace."