Kuleba: Ukraine's counteroffensive should not be considered final battle

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's Foreign Minister, said this at a joint press conference with the foreign ministers of the Nordic and Baltic countries in Odesa, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We did discuss the issue of a counteroffensive. I gave my colleagues two signals that they seem to share. First, this counteroffensive should not be considered the final battle. The final battle will be the one that will lead to the complete liberation of the territory of Ukraine, but this is a conclusion that can only be made at the end of the battle - not at the beginning," he said.

Dmytro Kuleba warned that those who conclude that this is a decisive battle are distorting the picture and efforts. In his opinion, only in the end will it be possible to say that Ukraine has achieved all its goals or will it need another counteroffensive.

"We will fight until we liberate our territories. This is clear. If we need one counteroffensive to do this, we will have one counteroffensive; if we need two or more, we will have two or more," the head of Ukrainian diplomacy emphasized.

The minister also noted that he did not know when the operation would begin and that it was up to the generals to decide.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on Friday, the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Latvia, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, and the Finnish undersecretary of state visited Odesa.

Last November, the Nordic and Baltic foreign ministers pledged to continue to provide political and practical support to ensure Ukraine's ability to defend itself.