According to its president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia is using Ukraine as a testing ground for possible new attacks against other European countries. “Russia is testing everything in Ukraine that can be used against other European countries,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video speech. “It started with gas wars and ended with a full-scale invasion, terror with rockets and burning Ukrainian cities.”
Ukraine must also defeat Russia so that other countries are safe, Zelenskyy said. “The faster this happens, the less harm and suffering all European families, all European countries will experience.”
About five months into the war, the Ukrainian head of state once again expressed his gratitude for the US-supplied Himars multiple rocket launchers. At the same time, he insisted on the preservation of air defense systems. Agreements with international partners already exist, but in light of Russian attacks “a completely different speed and a completely different level of protection” are needed, Zelenskyy said.
Lavrov’s threats
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is threatening to seize more areas of the country in view of Western arms deliveries to Ukraine.
“The geography is already different,” Russia’s chief diplomat said on Wednesday in an interview with Moscow’s state television channel RT. It is no longer just the Donbass with the Russian-recognized “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia, but also “various other territories,” Lavrov said. “This process is happening, it is happening consistently and vigorously.”
According to Lavrov, Ukraine is receiving weapons from the West with increasing ranges of up to 300 kilometers. Thus, Ukrainian troops are being pushed further and further back so that there is no threat to the “People’s Republics” or Russia. Russia cannot allow the rest of the territory, which is still controlled by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or anyone else, to pose a threat. Lavrov recalled that the demilitarization of Ukraine is one of Russia’s main objectives in this conflict.
Ukraine strongly criticizes Russian threats to capture more territory. “Russia discards diplomacy and is focused on war and terror,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter. Instead of negotiations, the Russians are after bloodshed.
Putin: Kyiv has no interest in peace solution
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of not being interested in a peace solution. In negotiations in Istanbul in late March, both sides “really reached an agreement, it just needed to be signed,” Putin said. Since then, however, Kyiv has refused to implement the solution reached. During the March talks, both sides reached a rapprochement over the issue of Ukraine’s non-aligned status. However, Russia also insists that Ukraine recognize Crimea, which Moscow has annexed since 2014, as Russian and cede the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.