Ukraine Changes Its Vision of Victory - Kuleba

Kyiv will now consider a victory to be not the withdrawal of Russian troops to the positions they occupied before February 24, but the complete liberation of all territories. Ukraine is changing its view of victory in the current war. Now it will see the victory not as the withdrawal of Russian troops to their positions before February 24, 2022, but as the complete liberation of all Ukrainian territories. This was stated by Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in an interview with the Financial Times, published on Tuesday, May 10. According to him, the picture of Ukrainian victory is an evolving concept. “In the first months of the war the victory for us looked like withdrawal of Russian forces to the positions they occupied before February 24 and payment for inflicted damage. Now if we are strong enough on the military front and we win the battle for Donbas, which will be crucial for the following dynamics of the war, of course the victory for us in this war will be the liberation of the rest of our territories,” Kuleba said. As he told, only Russia’s military defeat would allow Ukraine to reopen its Black Sea ports and revive its export economy. If Kyiv received even more military support, it will be able to throw the occupants back from the Kherson region and defeat the Black Sea fleet. At the same time, he also acknowledged the bloodshed could be too great and Ukraine might ultimately have to negotiate a settlement. Kyiv would want to approach that point with “the strongest cards possible”. Earlier, London said that Ukraine needs to be armed to the point where it can fully liberate its territories in Crimea and Donbass. Корреспондент