Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave an interview to The Economist , in which he tried to convey to the Western public that the war is far from over, it is too early to relax, and that by supporting Ukraine, Europe is also protecting itself.
In his opinion, the West has lost the sense of the importance of what is happening in Ukraine, but it has no other way out than to defeat Russia.
Zelenskyy is irritated not by Russia's successes in the field of pain and their absence in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (although he himself does not believe so), but by the discord in the allied camp and the detachment of some of his compatriots.
The day after Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022, Zelensky recorded a short video in which he simply said, “We are here.” He is still in the government quarter in Kyiv, despite the constant airstrikes and bombings.
However, the Economist notes, almost two years after the start of the war, the world is no longer listening so carefully to his words, and Zelensky himself is no longer able to control the course of events so skillfully.
“Fatigue is setting in in Ukraine. In the West, headlines are asking whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has started winning. Aid to Ukrainians has become a political bargaining chip in America and Europe,” notes the Economist.
The West has lost its sense of urgency, and many Ukrainians have lost their sense of existential threat, Zelensky says. “Maybe we didn’t succeed [in 2023] the way the world wanted. Maybe not as quickly as some imagined,” he says, but the idea that Putin is winning is nothing more than a “feeling.”.
He said the Russian army was suffering huge losses. This statement is consistent with British intelligence estimates that, unless things change radically, Russia will lose more than 500,000 killed and wounded by 2025.
“Thousands and thousands of Russian soldiers killed, whose bodies no one even took,” Zelensky says, recalling that in 2023 Russia failed to take a single major city, while Ukraine managed to break through the Russian blockade of the Black Sea and is now transporting millions of tons of grain along a new route along the southern coast of Ukraine. “A huge result!” the president declares.
But Zelensky understands that perception can become reality, becoming a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. That’s what makes the coming year so important. As Russia’s military efforts increase and Ukraine’s resources dwindle, America and many European countries’ attention shifts to domestic politics in an election year.
Zelensky argues that by supporting Ukraine, Europe is protecting itself from Russian aggression. “By giving us money or by giving us weapons, you are supporting yourself. You are saving your children, not ours,” he warns. If Russia is allowed to take Ukrainian children, “they will take other children too.” If Russia violates the rights of Ukrainians, “it will violate rights all over the world.”.
“Putin feels weakness like an animal, because he is an animal. He feels blood, he feels his strength. And he will eat you for dinner with all your EU, NATO, freedom and democracy,” Zelensky says.
“Maybe something is missing. Or maybe someone is missing. Someone who could talk about Ukraine as protecting us all.” European countries should lobby America for Ukraine’s support for their own good: “The intelligence services of several European countries have begun [to study] the possibility of an attack on their territory by Russia… Even those countries that were not part of the USSR.”.
As for the proposals for negotiations, according to Zelensky, he does not see “any fundamental steps towards peace from Russia.” “I see only the steps of a terrorist country,” he noted. And if Russia, as some Western media write, is giving signals about its desire to freeze the conflict, it is not because they are righteous, but because they do not have enough missiles, ammunition and trained troops. They need this pause. To restore their strength. And then, having gathered all their strength, turn the page of this war.”.
Zelensky is not speculating about Ukraine’s potential successes in 2024. He says that leaks of information before last summer’s counteroffensive helped Russia prepare its defenses. But he believes the focus of the war will be Crimea and the battle in the Black Sea. Isolating Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, and weakening Russia’s military potential there “is extremely important for us because it’s a way to reduce the number of attacks from that region,” he says.
A successful operation would be “an example for the whole world,” he continues. It would also have a major effect inside Russia. The loss of a central object of Kremlin propaganda would show that “thousands of Russian officers died only because of Putin’s ambitions.”.
Ukraine is already scoring incredible victories on the strategically important peninsula, destroying “a significant number” of Black Sea Fleet ships — British officials say a fifth of the fleet has been destroyed in the past four months alone. Losing naval bases that Russia has held for the past 240 years would be a huge embarrassment for Putin.
But the speed of success will depend on the military assistance Ukraine receives from Western partners, Zelensky says. He has asked for the Ukrainian Armed Forces to receive Taurus, German-made long-range cruise missiles capable of destroying the Kerch Bridge, effectively isolating the Crimean peninsula from Russia. “Russia must know that for us this is a military facility,” he emphasizes.
However, Zelensky does not reveal Ukraine’s goals in the east and south. His stated strategic goal — to return Ukraine to its original borders — has not changed and will not change, but he no longer says when and how much territory Ukraine will be able to liberate this year. The immediate task now is “protecting the east, saving these very important cities of Ukraine, the east and south, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv” and protecting the country’s critical infrastructure.
Inflated expectations ahead of the 2023 counteroffensive partly contributed to the disappointment, notes the Economist. In an interview with the publication in November 2023, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian forces, Valery Zaluzhny, admitted that a stalemate had developed on the battlefield. This initially provoked an angry reaction from Zelensky, but it also provided an opportunity to change the rhetoric. To win, it is necessary to mobilize not only the West, but, above all, Ukraine itself.
“We have to rely on our own resources,” Zelensky says. While he remains confident that America will eventually provide military assistance, Ukraine, he says, is also ramping up its own production in case Western supplies are not enough. To that end, he is asking the U.S. government to grant Ukraine licenses to produce weapons, from artillery systems and missiles to air defense systems.
According to Zelensky, the “mobilization of Ukrainian society and the whole world,” so visible at the beginning of the war, is absent today. “This must change,” he says, insisting that lowering the mobilization age and reducing the grounds for exemption from service have no alternative – even though they are unpopular in Ukrainian society.
“Mobilization is not just about soldiers going to the front. It’s about all of us. It’s about mobilizing all efforts. This is the only way to protect our state and liberate our land. Let’s be honest, we’ve moved on to domestic politics,” Zelenskyy says. “If we continue to focus on domestic politics, we need to call elections. Change laws, the Constitution. But then we’ll have to forget about counteroffensives and de-occupation.”.
Zelensky, as before, is convinced that Ukraine cannot back down from its plan to defeat Russia. “The most important profession for a Ukrainian today is to be in Ukraine…, and for our Western partners, to be with Ukraine… If you don’t have the strength, then step aside. We will not back down,” the Ukrainian president says.
