Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the biggest challenge facing Kyiv in its war with Russia is allies’ fear of escalating support for Ukraine due to concerns about war escalation, reports TVN24.
Speaking at a joint panel with his Polish counterpart Radosław Sikorski at the Campus Polska Przyszłości forum, Kuleba said that “war consumes a lot of resources, money, effort, and equipment.”
“From the beginning of the Russian invasion, the biggest problem Ukraine faced was that the fear of conflict escalation dominated our allies’ decision-making,” Kuleba said. He revealed that “every request from Ukraine for a new type of weapon was initially met with refusal.”
The minister said, “If the fear of escalation had not been the main factor influencing allies’ decisions, Ukraine would now be in a much better position and would have received the necessary weapons much earlier.”
Kuleba argued that “prolonging the war cost us Ukrainian lives and affected our economy.” He said that “the biggest challenge is to convince our allies to support us so that they don’t think about Moscow’s reaction.”
According to Kuleba, the argument about possible escalation from Russia became an excuse not to take decisive actions that would help Ukraine win.
Following a massive Russian missile strike, Kuleba said that allies could “make two decisions” that would help end Russian terror.
Ukraine plans to provide the Biden administration with a list of targets deep within Russian territory in an attempt to persuade the US to lift restrictions on the use of American weapons.
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