Zaluzhnyi: Russian missile strikes pose threat to Ukraine, NATO member states
“Today, at the invitation of the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer I took part in the NATO Military Committee in Chiefs of Defence meeting in the format with Ukraine,” Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhnyi posted on Facebook.
During the meeting, Zaluzhnyi emphasized that the Ukrainian people “sacrifice an extremely high price for freedom and European choice, and Europe is experiencing the greatest security crisis since the Second World War.”
The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine iterated his words from the last January's NATO Military Committee in Chiefs of Defence: the response to the aggressor should be consolidated.
“Since 2014 the war has become a real one for us Ukrainians. Not the Anti-Terrorist Operation, not the Joint Forces Operation, but namely the war. And every day of this war, every soldier killed, every mutilated fate was a lesson for us. We were aware that the full-scale aggression would eventually begin, and we were getting ready for it. We clearly acknowledged that the first month would be the turning point. We managed to take away the enemy's strategic initiative, cause critical losses, and force them to abandon the main objective – the capture of the city of Kyiv,” he said.
As Zaluzhnyi noted, now Ukrainians are not just defending ourselves but have already conducted a series of successful counter-attacks, succeeding to unblock Kharkiv and Mykolaiv. The battles on Kherson direction are conducted.
According to him, “if our grandfathers who fought in the Second World War were alive, they would cry seeing what is happening in Ukraine.”
The Nazi methods have not changed, he said, as there is the total destruction of civilian facilities and the killing of civilians, humanitarian disaster.
«The enemy clearly realizes and understands what he is committing. Intercepted conversations of the Russian military command confirm that they did all that consciously. The whole world knows what are Bucha, Hostomel, and Borodianka. This is enormous grief in the 21st century in the very heart of Europe,” the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stressed.
At the NATO Military Committee in Chiefs of Defence meeting, Zaluzhnyi also mentioned the defenders of Mariupol, who, via their heroic deeds, restrained the enemy's many thousandth formations and allowed us to equip the defensive lines in other directions.
However, the aggressor continues high-precision weapons missile strikes deep inside Ukraine’s territory.
“We destroyed the flagship cruiser Moskva and inflicted damage on three powerful ships from the composition of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation. But Russians are maintaining missile fire of high intensity, on average 10-14 ballistic and cruise missiles per day. This is a threat not only to Ukraine, but also to NATO member states. After all, each such missile carries 400-600 kg of TNT. Therefore crucial to strengthen missile defence,” Zaluzhnyi underscored.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine noted that “the armed struggle in the 21st century is complex when it comes to combining of operations, which in its turn requires the use of modern high-precision long-range weaponry, an effective anti-aircraft system as well as anti-aircraft weapons.”
“I thanked my partners for the assistance provided, thanks to which we are confidently fighting and will definitely gain the Victory. It was nice to hear from colleagues the words of support and admiration for our soldiers and the entire Ukrainian people, who show today the world how to fight for their state and freedom,” he added.
Zaluzhnyi also thanked the Embassy of the Republic of Poland to Ukraine in the person of Ambassador Bartosz Cichotski for the hospitality.
Photo credit: Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Facebook
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