Kuleba explains comment on "difficult autumn" for Ukraine

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba explained his recent comment suggesting that Ukraine’s diplomacy was facing a "difficult autumn" and spoke of steps to prevent negative scenarios.

The head of Ukrainian diplomacy dwelled on the topic in interview with Natalia Moseychuk, Ukrinform reports.

"I spoke about a ‘difficult autumn’ for several reasons. First, our counteroffensive. The closer to the cold and rainy season that has just begun, the more difficult it is to advance on the battlefield. The second is the approach of (presidential. - Ed.) elections in the U.S. As a matter of fact, you and I have already seen plot twists,” the minister noted.

The third reason, as per Kuleba, is a "very tense" election in Poland, elections in Slovakia, and Ukraine’s relations with other European countries.

"Fourth is Russia's strikes targeting energy infrastructure. You and I understand that it is only a matter of time before they again start trying to destroy us in the energy domain. And the fifth reason why I am talking about this is the trend... of the thinning of international stocks, from where we get various military equipment," said the head of the Foreign Ministry.

He added that Kyiv had recently hosted a first Forum of Defense Industries in order to stimulate the production of new weapons and ensure stable supplies.

According to Kuleba, the weapons Ukraine is now getting from international partners the weapons, agreed upon previously, and in order to prevent the "slump" of these supplies, the Ukrainian government has begun to work systematically on ramping up production both domestically and abroad.

"The topic of negotiations (with Russia. - Ed.) can appear only if in all these areas that I have listed, we would allow that ‘slump’ and things would be negative everywhere.  But, since there is no such slump (which we didn’t allow) the issue of talks doesn’t dominate today but that of President Zelensky's peace formula does," the minister summarized.

As reported earlier, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba suggested that the upcoming political season across the world may be difficult for Ukraine in a diplomatic sense, as calls will be heard in various countries regarding the alleged need for negotiations with Russia.