Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak told AFP on Wednesday that Ukraine would be able to win the war in 2023 if it received more Western weapons, especially long-range missiles and heavy tanks.
Otherwise, the war would last “for decades”, Podolić said, adding that the “bloodiest” fighting was currently taking place in the eastern ukraine In Bakhmut and Soledar.
“Only missiles with a range of more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) will allow us to accelerate the occupation of our territories,” he told AFP in an interview.
The United States last year supplied Ukraine with a missile system with a range of about 80 kilometers that has been credited with turning the tide of the conflict in Kyiv’s favor on several fronts.
Kyiv has also recently received a similar French system.
But it is pressuring Washington to deliver the US ATACMS missile, which has a range of about 300 km.
These systems allow Ukrainian forces to target Russian weapons depots inside Ukrainian territory controlled by Moscow but currently out of range of weapons in Kyiv’s arsenal.
Podolić said Ukraine could destroy all Russian military infrastructure in occupied territories, including the Donbass in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
‘Defensive War’
But the United States has been hesitant to offer long-range missile capability to Ukraine, fearing an escalation that would pit the United States directly against Russia.
“We will not attack Russia,” said the senior adviser. “We are waging an exclusively defensive war.”
Europe and the United States may soon speed up deliveries because they understand that these supplies are critical to “confining this war to the occupied territories” and ending it, he said.
Ukraine also needed armor, in particular heavy tanks like the German Leopard, and artillery, Podolić said.
“France is already giving us light tanks. that is very good. But we still want to get 250 to 300 to 350 heavy tanks.”
Polish President Andrzej Duda later announced that Poland was ready to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, which Kyiv had requested, but as part of an international alliance.
Podolić said Kyiv’s other priority needs are 155-millimetre caliber shells, combat drones capable of striking deep inside occupied territories, and anti-aircraft systems – including the German Cheetah anti-aircraft armored vehicles.
He added that new anti-aircraft defense systems such as the US Patriots or the French Crotel would soon be able to neutralize the threat posed by Russian bombing campaigns against Ukrainian energy installations.
“We will be able to close our skies within a month,” he said.
He said Ukraine would soon be able to shoot down 95 percent of missiles fired by Russia, compared to 75 percent at present.
‘blood feud
Meanwhile the “bloodiest” scenes are taking place in Bakhmut, an urban center in the eastern Donbas region that Russia has been trying to seize for months, as well as in the neighboring town of Soledar.
Podolić said that Russia had deployed its best army units as well as the Wagner Fighter Group for the battle.
Podolić said, “There’s a lot of blood, a lot of gun battles, a lot of close contact fighting, especially in Soledar.”
He described the area as “the hottest spot in the battle” and spoke of “extraordinary” losses on both sides.
Unlike previous urban battles in Ukraine, few civilians remain near the engulfed towns of Bakhmut and Soledar.
Kyiv has said thousands of Ukrainian lives were lost in the siege of the port city of Mariupol in the first months of the war.
“If in Mariupol 90 percent of the deaths were civilians, then in Soledar and Bakhmut it is soldiers,” he said.
On Wednesday the paramilitary group Wagner claimed to control Soledar, but the Russian Defense Ministry swiftly shot down the claim.
Its collapse would mark Russia’s first significant territorial gain in Ukraine in months.
But a victory there would make no sense for Russia strategically, Podolić said.
“For us, this is a bridgehead towards Donetsk,” Podolić said, referring to the main city and pro-Russia separatist stronghold in eastern Ukraine’s eponymous Donetsk region.
“But for the Russians, there is no strategic goal. It is an open space, and our position is more advantageous,” Podolić said.
“We see a completely irresponsible attitude – to put it mildly – from the Russian elite towards their own military personnel, who are dying there by the thousands,” Podolić said.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)