Ukraine has the right to defend its territory and wants to restore the world, and for this it needs the support of partners, in particular, the provision of modern weapons. This was stated by the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak in an interview with the German news service Tagesschau.de, the press service of the Office of the President reports.
"If we intensively break through the defense line of the Russian army, the next step will be to return the territories and destroy the armed forces of the Russian Federation. And this requires a certain amount of armored vehicles and tanks. But these should not be ineffective Soviet tanks - neither T-55, nor T-64, nor even T-72. That's why we're telling our partners, Germany in particular: if you want to take the lead, if you want us to have fewer casualties, and if you want this war to end faster, then give us the Leopard 2," he said. Podolyak
The adviser to the head of the Office of the Head of State emphasized that the Ukrainian military can very quickly learn to use new weapons of any complexity, which has already been proven many times.
"Nothing is impossible for us. And we also say: open training centers, but with a shortened program," he emphasized.
Podoliak stated that today the Ukrainian military at the front uses almost all types of artillery, which were not even close to the start of a full-scale war.
"Are we using them effectively? Did we quickly learn to use them? So! We can do it right. And this is exactly what we are explaining to Germany. I want to tell the Federal Government one very simple thing: we are learning things very quickly. But we will always emphasize that we learned so quickly because the Germans were on our side," he added.
Responding to a question about whether there is a threat of escalation by Russia after holding pseudo-referendums on captured Ukrainian territories in the event of a successful counteroffensive by Ukraine, Podolyak said: "What is escalation? World War III? There is a country that uses cruise missiles that take off from the Caspian Sea and attack cities like Lviv and Kyiv. A country that destroys civil infrastructure, kills people en masse in Buch, takes the life of an entire family in Izyum. What do you mean by escalation and World War III? Exclusive use of nuclear weapons? But we use conventional weapons."
The adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine is convinced that the fact that Russia is a nuclear power should not stop Ukraine from protecting its territory.
"If we stop, they will somehow drive tanks to the Dnipro, then to Kyiv and declare these cities Russia. So we will completely lose Ukraine. There is no escalation. There is Ukraine, which has the right to defend its territory. We want to restore the world. This requires support with conventional weapons," Podolyak emphasized.
