As the diplomat notes, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned about this shelling on the eve. He reminded that intelligence knows about all planned enemy actions.
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“And the whole world knows what Russia’s strategy is. It has not changed for five and a half years. Russia remains convinced that, despite everything, despite the economic, military, and finally, common sense realities, all matters must be resolved exclusively according to Russia’s whims.
Russia has been accustomed to the West constantly making concessions, turning a blind eye to violations of international law, breaches of international treaties, annexations and occupations of neighboring countries. All this ‘practice’ must end now or it will never end,” said the former Lithuanian Foreign Minister.
According to him, the situation has fundamentally changed recently, as shown by at least three main factors.
“1. If a year ago in Anchorage Donald Trump was intensely considering what to do with the stubborn Ukraine, now in the White House, together with V. Zelensky, they discussed what to do with Russia.
2. D. Trump no longer has illusions that Russia can be ‘talked into’ or tempted with business projects. He finally understood that V. Putin really is not and will not be D. Trump’s ally. Russia needs a curb, and Ukraine needs military support.
3. If Russia really thinks it can continue fighting for a long time, then Ukraine will be even better prepared for that in the near future,” L. Linkevičius emphasized.
In the diplomat’s assessment, Ukraine’s priority task today is defense against Russian ballistic missiles. But in the long term, conditions open up for more intensive cooperation between Western military industry and Ukraine.
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The ability to produce Western weapons in Ukraine itself, to use Western technologies, would reduce dependence on the slow supply process from abroad. Trump confirmed granting the US license to Ukraine to produce ‘Patriot’ missiles. This would be a significant qualitative leap. The fighter jet fleet will be qualitatively replenished: alongside American ‘F-16s’, Swedish ‘Gripens’ will fight on the front, supplemented by French ‘Mirage 2000’ fighters,” the ambassador wrote.
And currently, Ukrainians are able to achieve significant results with the means they have, he noted.
Consistent and targeted attacks on oil refining and fuel infrastructure have proven effective. Now, ‘Wildberries’ logistics centers are being destroyed just as purposefully. This online trade, logistics, and warehousing network is the most developed in Russia.
“There has been a huge political uproar, although so far only a little more than 10% of the facilities have been damaged. When it reaches 30%, the blow to the economy, business reliability, and, of course, psychology will be even greater,” L. Linkevičius guessed.
Ukraine has managed to seize the initiative thanks to exceptional progress in developing and using long-range weapons on the front. It is rapidly increasing the production of drones, cruise missiles, and already its own ballistic missiles.
“There is no doubt that in the near future Ukraine will use these weapons even more intensively against important military targets deep in Russia. There is also no doubt that Moscow will receive Ukrainian ballistic missiles. The more of these missiles it receives, the less stubbornness will remain to continue the pointless war. This may not affect Putin’s stubbornness, but people’s patience should finally run out,” he concluded.
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