As the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches, NATO allies once again pledged this week to send more defense systems, ammunition, artillery and tanks in an effort to defeat Russia, but a high Defense official said Ukraine’s victory will require more than border security.
Kiev has said it hopes to claim victory against Russian President Vladimir Putin by the end of 2023, which in its eyes means expelling all Russian troops from its territory, including Crimea, and bolstering defenses for the future.
“Victory for us will mean not only driving out the enemy and restoring our territorial sovereignty,” Yuriy Sak, a top adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, told Fox News Digital. “Victory will also mean establishing a Ukraine that makes such aggression impossible in the future.”
Ukrainian soldiers adjust a national flag on an armored personnel carrier on a road near Lyman, Donetsk region, on October 4, 2022. (Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)
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Ukraine has already seen victories on parts of its eastern front after it successfully drove Russian forces out of the Kharkiv region in September, damaged Putin’s Crimean bridge in October and forced Russian troops across the Dnieper river in November when he recaptured the city of Kherson.
But Ukraine now faces the prospect of keeping Russian troops out not only of these areas, but also of the regions they have not yet liberated.
Sak said the only way to ensure adequate border protection is to transform Ukraine’s forces to adhere to the same standard as the Western military, a feat his troops are already working on while being trained by US forces. .and NATO.
But even more important to Ukraine’s long-term security is its ability to have the full backing of its Western allies, the defense adviser explained, a move Putin has long seen as his biggest threat.
Ukrainian marines prepare for bilateral military exercises with the United States on September 16, 2014, near Yavorov, Ukraine. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
“Ukraine needs to become a NATO member,” Sak said. “In fact, we are already a member of the NATO alliance because we are fighting to prevent the enemy from going further into NATO countries. We are using weapon systems that are provided to us by NATO members.”
The defense adviser said that even after Russian forces are driven out, it will take time to rebuild Ukraine, particularly the Lugansk, Dontesk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, the hardest hit by the war.
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Ukraine needs to become more self-sufficient militarily, he added.
“We will have to considerably build and improve our own defense industry in order to be less dependent on military support from our partners,” Sak said.
The adviser said munitions factories and maintenance plants are basic requirements to achieve this plan, pointing to the fact that when military equipment is damaged during war, it often has to be sent to nations like Poland for repair.
Ukrainian servicemen sit atop armored personnel carriers near the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk on July 11, 2014. (Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images)
Putin launched his invasion over the claim that Ukraine posed an existential threat by trying to join NATO.
In the first peace negotiations between Moscow and kyiv, Russia demanded that Ukraine pledge never to join the alliance. kyiv appeared to consider the lawsuit until negotiations collapsed.
By September, kyiv had made progress in its search for membership.
NATO has also rejected Russia’s demands that it block Kiev’s path to join the military alliance and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg accused Putin last year of fearing “democracy and freedom”.
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Ukraine maintains that it is not only in its own interest for kyiv to win the war against Russia, but also that it is fighting for the security of Europe and the world order.
“We should all redouble our efforts and get going so we don’t let this war turn into a protracted war; it’s in nobody’s interest,” Sak argued. “It’s not just about Ukraine. It’s about the stability of Europe and the world.”
