Ukraine’s top diplomat said on Wednesday that the biggest problem faced by Kyiv as it battles Russia is that its allies are afraid of approving new policies to support Ukraine out of a fear of escalation.
The remark by foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba came a day after Russia’s foreign minister said the West was “playing with fire” by considering allowing Kyiv to strike deep into Russia and warned of the risks of a third world war.
“Ever since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, the biggest problem Ukraine has been facing is the domination of the concept of escalation in the decision-making processes among our partners,” Mr Kuleba said.
More than 2½ years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kyiv is pushing the West to give it the long-range weapons – and the authorisation – to strike targets deep inside Russian territory. It also wants help shooting down incoming missiles.
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Mr Kuleba made the comment during a conversation with Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski that was broadcast live from Poland.
“The war is always about a lot of hardware: money, weapons, resources but the real problems are always here, in the heads,” he said.
“Most of our partners are afraid of discussing the future of Russia ... This is something that is very upsetting because if we do not speak about the future of the source of threat, then we cannot build strategy,” he said.
Ukraine has relied heavily on the West to supply it with weapons and hardware and financial assistance to hold out against Russia and fight back against Moscow’s troops.
Kyiv launched a major cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk region on August 6th in what Russian president Vladimir Putin has called a “massive provocation”.
During the meeting with Mr Kuleba, Poland’s foreign minister Mr Sikorski said that while Russia is using long-range weapons against Ukraine, allies should “let Ukraine fight with whatever it has, with whatever we have delivered them and let’s deliver them more.”
He said that Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s people have an idea on how to end the war. “Some of these people say the plan is to accelerate the end of the war by threatening Putin with the escalation,” Mr Sikorski said.
The foreign minister suggested using other incentives to stop the war. “Help us to persuade some of our the European allies to not just extend the loan on the basis of frozen Russian assets but let us confiscate the assets from the aggressor and give it to the victim of aggression,” he said.
The Kremlin dismissed talk by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy about a plan he has to end the war and said Russia would continue what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Mr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he would present his plan – full details of which he did not publicly disclose – to US president Joe Biden and his two potential successors.
Mr Zelenskiy, addressing a news conference, said Kyiv’s three-week-old incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was part of his plan, but that it also comprised other steps on the economic and diplomatic fronts.
The idea, said Mr Zelenskiy – who is pressing Washington to allow his forces to use long-range US-supplied arms to strike deep inside Russia – was to force Moscow to end the war.
“This is not the first time that we have heard such statements from representatives of the Kyiv regime. We are aware of the nature of this Kyiv regime,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about Mr Zelenskiy’s plan.
“We are continuing our special military operation and will achieve all of our goals.”
Russia is currently engaged in repelling the Ukrainian incursion and is pressing ahead with its own offensive in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Mr Peskov also said that Russia supported India’s view on the need for a peaceful settlement, but said it was “more than obvious” that there was no basis for talks.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that he had told Mr Putin in a phone call that he backed an early, peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict, days after Mr Modi held talks with the Ukrainian leader in Kyiv.
Ukraine-launched drones set several oil tanks on fire at the Glubokinskaya oil depot in Russia’s Rostov oblast on Wednesday, just across the border from Ukraine’s Luhansk oblast.
The Baza channel, which is close to Russia’s security services, said three tanks were burning after strikes by two drones.
Elsewhere, a drone attacked an oil products reservoir in Kotelnich in Russia’s Kirov oblast, more than 1,000km from the Ukrainian border.
Regional governor Alexander Sokolov said there were no casualties or fires from the attack. – Reuters