Russia sowing fear, panic to make Ukraine surrender - defense chief
That’s according to Oleksiy Reznikov, Ukraine’s Defense Minister, who spoke with The Economist.
“They are trying to create enough chaos, panic and fear to make us sign an act of capitulation,” Reznikov said. “It hasn’t worked. We’re not even a tiny bit close to being in that kind of mood.”
Ukraine now needs quick Western help to stop the onslaught, but it is not coming fast enough. In some areas Russian forces have ten times the Ukrainians’ firepower.
Multiple-launch rocket systems are in the pipeline, due to arrive “soon… perhaps in a week, perhaps two.” But Ukraine needs them in large numbers, and whether or not its allies agree to send them may depend on how Russia reacts to their deployment.
Western military chiefs have also expressed concerns that Ukraine may not be able to absorb the new hardware as fast as it would like. Reznikov dismisses this: his soldiers mastered Western artillery in just two weeks, he says. The country stands ready to switch its weaponry to NATO standards within a month, he claims.
“The West’s bureaucracy and pragmatism turned out to be much stronger than its values,” Reznikov says. For France and Germany, Ukraine is an irritating obstacle standing in the way of a comfortable life.
As deputy prime minister from 2020-2021 Reznikov headed Ukraine’s peace negotiations with Russia over the eastern Donbas region, which had experienced fighting since 2014. It was an experience that taught him that Russia does not see peace agreements as permanent. That makes a traditional negotiated truce with the Kremlin impossible, whatever Emmanuel Macron, France’s president—who has said Russia must not be “humiliated”—might wish for.
When the time comes, Ukraine will negotiate for a new security architecture in Europe, Reznikov believes. That means security guarantees from countries it trusts.
