“A long war plays into Putin’s hands

Dusseldorf, Berlin On May 9th, when the end of the Second World War is celebrated in Russia and Ukraine, all Ukrainians are not supposed to leave the house. Because Russia will do something on that day, says Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna in an interview with the Handelsblatt. The intensity of the Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine has already increased.

Stefanishyna does not expect the war in Ukraine, which has been going on for two and a half months, to end anytime soon. Putin will “fight until the last moment”. The Kremlin boss is counting on a “war of exhaustion”. Nobody can rule out the use of nuclear weapons either. For Ukraine, on the other hand, only an “unconditional victory” is a way out.

She is hoping for even greater support from Europe with modern weapons and an early gas embargo against Russia. “If the decision for an embargo is not made, people will die in Ukraine from their euros that were paid to the Russians,” she says.