Ukraine-Russia war, today’s news

Kuleba to the BBC: Dealing with Putin? impossible”

Sit down sometime to deal with Putin? “No, it’s impossible: I say it undiplomatically”: these were the last words of an interview last night on the BBC’s “Hard Talk” broadcast from London by Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, pressed by the interviewer Stephen Sakura, after hesitating to answer. In response to a question about whether it is true that Volodymyr Zelensky does not intend to go to the NATO summit in Vilnius in July because he has not been sufficiently shown in the process of joining the alliance, due to the reluctance of some countries, including Germany, to speed things up, Kuleba replied that Kiev’s full membership in NATO after the war would be a guarantee of strength and security on Europe’s eastern flank: a weight that Germany now carries on its shoulders.

As for Western fears of “escalation” of the conflict, which have delayed important decisions, such as the decision on the delivery of F-16s, and fears brought about by Moscow’s threats, Kuleba replied that “Putin does not need a direct reason to create an escalation,” as evidenced by the invasion of Ukraine itself. and, more recently, the catastrophic destruction of the Kakhovka Dam. Finally, regarding the sanctions against Russia, to the objection that they are not working, Kuleba replied that they are “working”, but that they are not yet strict enough, although he is aware of the difficulties many countries face in further tightening. .