Ukraine's Western partners are reluctant to provide weapons that can strike at a distance of 300 km or more. However, the provision of aircraft, tanks and long-range ATACAMS may become possible in the future, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has said in an interview with LB.ua.
"I interpret the restrained position of our Western partners as follows: they still do not dare to give us weapons that can strike at a distance of 300 km or more, because they are worried that we, performing our combat missions, choosing strategic targets, absolutely legitimately, can strike the territory of the Russian Federation. Then the Russians will issue them a bill and say: 'Well, you see, in fact, your weapons are already fighting on our territory'. This is holding back our Western partners, because, indeed, not everyone in the Alliance is pro-Ukrainian or pro-European," he explained.
Reznikov added that there are Western countries that hesitate for political reasons, while some depend on Russia economically.
"They are on a needle - either gas, oil, petrol or something else. We know this very well. We all remember how a year ago no-one could shut down Nord Stream 2. The German government told us that there was nothing wrong there, it was just business, business as usual. Fortunately, Berlin has already changed its rhetoric. And not just rhetoric, but we actually receive serious assistance, and politically everything looks completely different. But there is still Hungary, for example, which maintains its position and is, in fact, a representative of the Russian Federation there (in Europe - LB.ua) and can block any decision," the minister said.
Reznikov stressed that he understands the position of US President Joe Biden on the provision of weapons and recalled that the decision to allocate weapons at the NATO level must be approved by all members of the Alliance.
"Therefore, when making this or that decision, they must, as leaders, as a leading country, look for balances, compromises in order not to cause a split within the Alliance. Because Russians dream of this split. The purpose of this open part of the war is to shake Europe, to shake NATO, to destroy it, to show its weakness. Fortunately, this did not happen. I think that there has not been such a powerful position and unity in Europe and NATO for the last decades. And it came from the Kremlin. But today, as you say, this frontier is the means of long-range destruction: the same ATACMS, aircraft that can cause a key turn. Why is this so? Because everyone still believes that Russia will not go anywhere, it is still a subject for now," Reznikov said.
He suggested that it is realistic to provide Ukraine with all the weapons it needs, because earlier even the allocation of Stingers and Patriot systems seemed unrealistic, and now Ukraine has received them.
"I am convinced that everything is possible. Like Patriots, planes and tanks, and ATACMS are possible, just everything is gradually coming, because the Russians are escalating the situation on their own, which forces our partners to make decisions to achieve a mirror answer," he explained.