S At the end of the war, responsibility will be sought from the countries that “treated Ukraine badly”, warned the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, in an interview with the BBC, BTA reported.
Ukraine will not forget who supported us, Kuleba said at the same time.
The Ukrainian foreign minister expressed disappointment that Pope Francis has not yet visited his country.
Ukraine will remember who backed us, country’s foreign minister says https://t.co/a7JOzmtk78
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 17, 2023
Kuleba gave the interview from the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The imposing Soviet-era building in the center of the capital Kiev is now guarded by armed guards and sandbags have been placed around it, the BBC reports.
The choice each country makes after Russia’s full-scale invasion will be “taken into account when building (its) future relations” with Ukraine, Kuleba pointed out.
Ukraine’s foreign minister has warned that the delay in Western arms supplies to Kiev is costing lives. “If a delivery is delayed by one day, it means someone will die on the front line,” he said.
Although Ukraine received military and economic support from Western powers after the Russian invasion, many countries
in Africa, Asia and South America stayed out of the conflict. Some of them sympathize with Russia historically, others are concerned about the economic cost of the war, and still others believe that the West is unnecessarily prolonging hostilities, summarizes the BBC.
However, Dmytro Kuleba made it clear that the countries that did not support Ukraine against Russian aggression, that “behaved badly in the course of this war and treated Ukraine badly”,
they will pay a price in the future. “If anyone in the world thinks that the way this or that country behaved – or treated Ukraine at the darkest moment in its history – will not be taken into account in building future relations, these people simply do not know how diplomacy works,” he pointed out.
The Ukrainian foreign minister also said that “war is a time apart. And every choice is remembered.”
Western allies did not provide military support to Ukraine quickly enough because they were not ready for a conflict on the scale of World War I, Kuleba said. He emphasized that what Kiev needs are artillery shells.
Nowhere is the need for ammunition greater than in Bakhmut,
where the Ukrainian armed forces have been holding out for more than seven months against repeated Russian attempts to seize the eastern city, the BBC notes.
The Ukrainian foreign minister admitted that the defense of Bakhmut is a big challenge from an emotional point of view point
because of the losses incurred. But if Bakhmut falls, then other cities will be next: “So to save people there… we have to fight in Bakhmut for as long as we physically can,” he said.
Kuleba said he saw no signs that Russia wanted to negotiate a cessation of hostilities.
“Every war ends at the negotiating table… (And) my goal as foreign minister is to make Ukraine (sit at) the table after a decisive success on the battlefield,” he noted at the same time.
The Ukrainian foreign minister said this should include building the strongest possible coalition
in support of his country. However, this alliance does not now include Pope Francis, he regretted.
Kuleba stated that God should judge the Holy Father, not him, but added: “We deeply regret that the Pope did not find an opportunity to visit Ukraine since the beginning of the war.”
China has also so far resisted lobbying by Ukraine for a meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Volodymyr Zelensky, the BBC commented.
Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced today that Xi will pay a state visit to Russia from March 20 to 22. This will be the Chinese president’s first visit abroad since he was re-elected to an unprecedented third term in office by the country’s parliament a week ago.
Kuleba said that Zelensky is ready for a telephone conversation with Xi. “I don’t think China has now reached the point … where it is ready to arm Russia,” he further said.
Amid speculation by some analysts that US support for Ukraine could wane after next year’s presidential election, Kuleba expressed confidence that this would not happen even if the White House owner becomes a Republican. “The greatest luxury that Ukraine enjoys in the United States is bipartisan support – both in the Democratic and Republican camps,” he added.
Earlier this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is considered one of the frontrunners for the Republican nomination
for the U.S. presidential election in November 2024, said the country’s further involvement in the conflict in Ukraine was not in the vital national interest. The previous American president – Republican Donald Trump, who has already announced that he intends to run for the White House again – also made statements in this vein.
As for the prospects for the outcome of the war, Kuleba said that Ukraine has one decisive factor on its side.
“Historically, Ukraine has been unfairly underestimated, and I regret that it took bloodshed and a devastating war for the world to understand” what we are capable of, he concluded.
