Kuleba: Putin should be grateful for fear of escalation – we lost time, but decisions were made
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba believes that nothing has benefited Russian dictator Volodymyr Putin more in the Russian-Ukrainian war than the "don't escalate" concept. In an interview with Foreign Affairs magazine, he said that ending a war of this magnitude requires eliminating the main cause of the war – Putin's imperialistic thinking.
Kuleba said that Putin "should be grateful" for the "don't escalate" concept because it delayed the adoption of many decisions, which were nevertheless made later.
"We lost time, we lost territories, and we lost lives," the head of the MFA emphasized.
The minister noted that it was not easy for many capitals to abandon decades and centuries of "foreign policy thinking towards Russia." He noted that generations of diplomats were brought up on the premise that "Russia should be treated as a partner, as a difficult, but still a partner."
He drew attention to the fact that it is "extremely difficult for countries to make a U-turn in one day", but they still do it, at least partially, when they allow the transfer of weapons to Ukraine.
"But was this U-turn comprehensive? Now it wasn't. But you see again, ending the war of this kind demands the elimination of the core reason for the war, and the core reason here is the imperialistic thinking of present Putin," Kuleba said.
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that no matter what balancing approaches the countries apply to Putin, "doesn't matter how careful you are trying to be—he will always be one step ahead."
"Because this is how empires think and act. So he thinks not in terms of Ukraine, he thinks of restoring this influence that his predecessors had established for the Russian Empire," the minister emphasized.
Kuleba said that as long as the Russian dictator "is in place, he has the capacity, and he is not taught the lesson of going back behind his border, he will keep doing it."
"So this is why it is so essential to change the way we think of Russia, to change the way we treat Russia, and to design a policy that will aim at basically de-emperializing the thinking in the Kremlin. The only way to that. As we all know, it is to teach them a lesson on the battlefield," concluded the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Currently, concern among NATO and EU member states about the possible threat from Russia is growing. NATO's Steadfast Defender 2024 exercise, the largest since the Cold War, began on January 24 and will continue until the end of spring. The Supreme Commander of NATO's combined armed forces in Europe, General Christopher Cavoli, stated that about 90,000 servicemen should take part in the exercises.
The purpose of these exercises is to implement NATO's defense plans, which the Alliance has developed over the past decades and which detail how it would respond to a possible Russian attack.
In recent weeks, many EU and NATO politicians have called for strengthening the defense capabilities of their countries and preparing for a possible Russian attack.
On January 3, 2024, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Turk called on Russia and Ukraine to take "immediate steps to de-escalate" the war.
On January 16, President Zelenskyy stated that the position of the partner countries "not to escalate" the war with sanctions against the Russian Federation and aid to Ukraine is wrong. Because of it, the lives of Ukrainians, in particular defenders, and time were lost, and Russia never escalated.
On January 18, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Ruge said that members of the organization should be ready for possible Russian aggression. He is confident that the Alliance is capable of defending against it.
