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Alina Frolova, the Deputy Chairperson of the Center for Defence Strategies and former Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defence said that Ukraine wants to end the war as quickly as possible. Not only are people being killed and the country destroyed, but the authorities fear a gradual change of attitude from European states.
“No matter how long it will take, we will win this war. But the biggest risk is that Europe may be tired. Now we have good support from many nations but can we keep this support for years?” Ms Frolova said.
She pointed out that Ukrainians are fighting for the existence of their nation and have no other choice than to win the war. Frolova added that at the moment Russian forces are trying to get Ukrainians tired by prolonging the fight, which is a clear change of tactics because initially the war was planned to be a quick victory for Moscow.
Deputy Minister of Defence said that sanctions imposed by the European Union are neccessary but they may have the desired effect in a long term. At the moment Russia still has a lot of resources and weapons, and even the hardest sanctions are unlikely to end the war immediately.
“Still, sanctions are required and the more we have, the better because it will limit their access to technology, to production capacities. We need to reach a complete political and economic isolation, while gas and oil are huge issues because Russia still receives money for these and reinvests the money into the war,” Ms Frolova said.
She also added that European states need to reconsider their approach to energy security and never forget that Russia uses oil and gas as weapons.
“Even in a situation when Russia raised prices and created an artificial gas deficit, it was still not clear for many European nations that this is the weapon. We need to consider lack of supply of gas and oil as part of the Russian weaponry, not only as economic issues,” Ms Frolova said.