According to a report by the US newspaper “Washington Post”, the Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valeriy Zalushnyi has admitted his country’s attacks on Russian territory. Accordingly, he said that he used domestically produced weapons for these beatings. “It’s our problem and we have to decide how to kill the enemy. It is possible and necessary to kill him on his territory in the war,” Zalushnyi told the newspaper in an article published on its website on Friday. Russian border regions in particular are repeatedly subjected to massive artillery and drone fire from the Ukrainian side.
The US newspaper pointed out that Kiev would not otherwise officially admit to the beatings across the border. “If our partners are afraid to use their weapons, then we kill with our own,” said Zalushny, referring to the requirements of the western allies not to attack Russian territory with the weapons supplied. “To protect my people, why should I have to ask someone’s permission to do what I’m doing on enemy territory.”
According to the report, Zalushny would like to have significantly more weapons, including cruise missiles, and sovereignty over the airspace to defeat the Russian occupiers. But the country could not expect the F-16 fighter jets until next year, it said.
According to the report, Zalushny made it clear that he also wanted to bring back the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia had annexed in 2014. “As soon as I have the means, I will do something. I don’t care, nobody will stop me,” he said. Accordingly, he does not want to be intimidated by nuclear threats from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy contradicted fears in Berlin that his armed forces could attack Russian territory with more modern western weapons. “We are not attacking Russian territory. We are liberating our legitimate territory,” Selenski said at a meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “We have no time, no strength and no superfluous weapons for this.” In accordance with international law, the country concentrated exclusively on liberating “our territory recognized by the whole world” when preparing the counter-offensive.