Washington can’t expect to defeat someone “stronger than Russia” when it fails to properly arm Kiev, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has claimed
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba. © STR / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Western nations are lagging behind Russia in their efforts to step up defense production, leading to doubts about the ability of the US and its allies to maintain the current world order, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has argued.
Speaking to Foreign Policy magazine, Kiev’s top diplomat urged the US in particular to “look for problems on your side and not on the side of Ukraine” when devising strategies for the conflict with Moscow.
“Russia has become more efficient in producing weapons than the whole Western alliance. It’s a bad sign. Things must change if we are serious about defending the world as we know it,” Kuleba said in an interview published on Wednesday.
“Ask yourselves: What are we doing wrong if we cannot help our ally prevail?” the diplomat urged the Americans.
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“If you cannot produce enough interceptors to help Ukraine win the war against the country that wants to destroy the world order, then how are you going to win in the war against perhaps an enemy who is stronger than Russia?” he added.
Kuleba called on politicians in Washington to adopt a maximalist approach to military assistance, and to treat Russia as an “enemy” that cannot be negotiated with while Vladimir Putin remains president.
Kiev is grateful for the approval of an additional $60 billion in US security aid last month, Kuleba said, but claimed that the morale boost “would have been even stronger” if Washington included Patriot anti-aircraft systems in its arms packages.
Putin has linked the Ukraine conflict with what he perceives to be Washington’s geopolitical vulnerability. Attending the Valdai Discussion Club last October, the Russian leader claimed the US had “provoked” the fighting, partly to force its European allies “to get behind [their] sovereign and switch to the policy of sanctions and restrictions against Russia.”
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During the same event, Putin stated that Western wealth “was to the large extent achieved thanks to the plunder of its colonies over the centuries.” He further claimed that “Western global influence is a giant military-financial pyramid scheme, which requires as fuel natural, technological, and human resources owned by others.”
