Ukraine asks NATO for more weapons to fight Russian invasion
Brussels, Apr 7 (EFE).- Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said Thursday that his meetings with NATO allies in Brussels later in the day would be centered on acquiring more weapons to fight the Russians.
“My agenda is very simple. It only has three items on it. It’s weapons, weapons, and weapons,” Kuleba said in an interaction with the media ahead of the meeting at the NATO headquarters.
“In the recent weeks, Ukrainian army and the entire Ukrainian nation has demonstrated that we know how to fight. We know how to win. But without sustainable and sufficient supplies of all weapons requested by Ukraine, these wins will be accompanied with enormous sacrifices,” he added.
The foreign minister stressed that the best way to help Ukraine was to provide it with “all necessary” to contain Russian President Vladimir Putin, and to defeat Russian army in Ukraine, so that the war “does not spill over further.”
In particular, he Ukraine’s need for aircraft, anti-ship missiles, personal armored vehicles and heavy air defense systems.
“I think the deal that Ukraine is offering is fair. You give us weapons, we sacrifice our lives and the war is contained in Ukraine,” the minister underlined.
Kuleba considered that no distinction should be made between defensive and offensive weapons claiming any weapon used in Ukraine against a foreign aggressor “is defensive by definition.”
On Germany, he acknowledged that it has taken “a revolutionary step in changing its position from not agreeing to supply any weapons at all, to allowing certain supplies and providing Ukraine in particular with anti-tank weapons.”
“However, it’s clear that Germany can do more given its reserves, reserves and capacity and we are working with the German government on providing us with additional weapons,” he said.
On the sanctions against Russia, he said that a step forward has been taken and that only a week ago the proposed restrictive measures were much weaker.
However, he insisted on a full embargo on Russian oil and gas, on expelling all Russian banks from the international SWIFT payment system, and on closing all ports to Russian ships and goods with the minimum possible exceptions based on humanitarian grounds.
“Frankly speaking, I hope we will never face a situation again, when to step up the sanctions pressure you need, we need atrocities like Bucha to be revealed and to impress and to shock other partners to the extent that they sit down and say okay, fine, we will introduce new sanctions,” Kuleba said.
He called for Ukrainians not to have to pay with “lives, health and sufferings” for new sanctions to be applied against Russia.
Although NATO countries have been providing weapons to Ukraine, they have been looking to act in a manner to avoid an all-out war against Russia. EFE
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