Fear of escalating conflict with Russia dominates allies' decision-making – Ukraine's Foreign Minister

Ivanna Kostina, VALENTYNA ROMANENKO — Wednesday, 28 August 2024, 20:06

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says that the biggest problem Kyiv faces in its war with the Russian aggressor is that allies are afraid to increase their support for Ukraine for fear of escalating the conflict.

Source: Polish 24-hour commercial news channel TVN24, as reported by European Pravda 

Details: Kuleba, speaking on a panel with his Polish counterpart Radosław Sikorski at the Campus Polska Przyszłości forum, emphasised that war requires significant resources, money, effort and equipment.

Quote: "But the biggest problems always start in people's minds. From the beginning of the Russian invasion, the biggest challenge Ukraine faced was that fear of escalation dominated our allies decision-making. You may not know this, but every request of Ukraine for a new type of weapon was initially refused," Kuleba said.

According to Kuleba, "if the fear of escalation was not the main factor that influenced the decisions of the allies, Ukraine would now be in a much better position and would receive the necessary weapons much earlier".

He added that "delaying the war cost us the lives of Ukrainians and affected our economy."

According to Kuleba, "the biggest challenge is to convince our allies to support us so that they do not think about Moscow's reaction".

"The Russians dropped hundreds of thousands of missiles and shells on our territory. For what reason? Because they have a very clear strategy and a clear goal: to destroy Ukraine," the Ukrainian Foreign Minister said.

Kuleba stated that the argument about a possible escalation on the part of Russia was the reason not to take decisive actions that would help Ukraine win.

"Do not be afraid of Russia's reaction; we are not afraid. We are not afraid of anything. Help us. Give us what we need. We will win this war, and then we will read in the history books how we made decisions together," the Ukrainian minister said.

Background: 

  • Dmytro Kuleba said after the Russian large-scale attack on 26 August that Ukraine's partners could help put an end to Russian terror by making two decisions.
  • The media previously reported that Ukraine was planning to hand over a list of targets deep in Russian territory to Joe Biden’s administration in order to convince the US to lift the ban on using American weapons to strike Russian territory.

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