🔺 EXCLUSIVE: Ukraine is massing a million-strong fighting force equipped with western weapons to recover its southern territory from Russia, the nation’s defence minister has revealed to The Times thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain…
In his first interview with a British newspaper since the invasion began, Oleksii Reznikov said President Zelensky had ordered Ukraine’s military to retake occupied coastal areas which are vital to the country’s economy
🗣️ “We understand that, politically, it’s very necessary for our country. The president has given the order to the supreme military chief to draw up plans. After that the general staff are doing their homework and say to achieve this goal we need XYZ,” he said
🗣️ “This is my job. I’m writing letters to counterparts in partner countries, the generals talk about why we need this kind of weaponry and then we get the political decisions,” Reznikov added 
Ben Wallace, Britain’s defence secretary, was key to helping shift the approach from providing Soviet equipment to Nato standard 155mm artillery, guided multiple launch rocket systems and high-tech drones, he said
🗣️ “It was a long process, a month and a half, but we got a result. Ukraine had a Soviet-era armed forces with thirty-year-old weapons. We changed this in three months,” Reznikov said
The minister, 56, said he was satisfied with the support Ukraine was receiving from Nato partners but not the pace of deliveries.
🗣️ “We need more, quickly, to save the lives of our soldiers. Each day we’re waiting for howitzers, we can lose a hundred soldiers”
🗣️ “We need more, quickly, to save the lives of our soldiers. Each day we’re waiting for howitzers, we can lose a hundred soldiers”
Western countries were only stepping up arms supplies now because Ukraine had proved it could fight, he said, having underestimated the determination to defend itself and over- estimated the strength of the Russian army at the start of the invasion
British soldiers are already training two battalions of Ukrainian soldiers in England as part of Boris Johnson’s pledge to train 10,000 troops every 120 days.
Kyiv is not concerned the prime minister’s imminent departure could derail that commitment, the minister said
Kyiv is not concerned the prime minister’s imminent departure could derail that commitment, the minister said
“We’ve looked into the eyes of our partners, I have a great relationship with Ben Wallace and James Heappey, our minister of foreign affairs Dymtro Kuleba is speaking with Liz Truss, I saw in London a lot of Ukrainian flags in all official buildings and unofficial buildings too”
The British efforts will help boost the Ukrainian army after heavy losses defending the Donbas region in the face of a massed Russian artillery onslaught, where President Zelensky said Ukraine was losing as many as 200 men a day
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
