Oleksiy Kuleba says the deadly threat to civilians in Kyiv Oblast comes from the air, but that Ukrainian soldiers have stopped Russian forces outside the capital.
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With patriotic and confident rhetoric, Oleksiy Kuleba makes it clear that he has faith that Ukrainian forces will drive the Russians out of the region and that it will never be appropriate to surrender the capital Kyiv.
– They will never surround Kyiv and they will never take the city. This is a battle between good or evil and everyone understands who is who. We must defend every street and every house, he says to VG.
Military administration
Ukrainian forces launched a counter-offensive this week to drive Russian forces around Kyiv away from the area.
– We have stopped the enemy outside Kyiv and we are working to defend the city, he says cryptically, but will not comment on how the counter-offensive has gone so far.
Kuleba was governor of Kyiv Oblast until a few days ago, but he is now under military administration and he therefore serves as the leader of the humanitarian effort in the area.
–Without food and petrol
He describes the humanitarian situation as twofold. In the south, there is access to supplies and infrastructure such as electricity. There are no active fighting there and many civilians are still there.
In the north, the situation is different.
– In Ivankiv and Bucha, there is a humanitarian crisis that has lasted for a week now, he says.
Kuleba states that 70,000 civilians have been evacuated from Bucha, but that Ivankiv has been cut off from Ukrainian forces. They have not received supplies of food and medicine in two weeks.
– Russian forces use civilians hostage there. We do not know if people are starving because there were food stores there before the war. But the situation is critical because they do not have water and petrol, says Kuleba.
–Yet he fears Russian airstrikes more than he fears people will run out of drinking water and food. They still do not know how many civilians were killed in Kyiv Oblast.
– This is a full-scale war. Many die as a result of the humanitarian catastrophe, but far more from the airstrikes. They bomb hospitals for newborns, schools and kindergartens, he says.
Tom by
In the city of Irpin, which has seen very heavy fighting, Ukrainian forces are fighting to take back the 30 percent that the Russians have occupied.
– There are active matches there every day, he says.
There have been horrific stories of civilians being bombed and killed while fleeing this city. Now Kuleba says that most civilians have escaped and that the city is largely empty.
Many in Kyiv Oblast have traveled inland to the capital, and then taken the trains on to the city such as Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi.
– Now there are no more than a million inhabitants left in Kyiv city. In Kyiv Oblast, where there are active fighting, 80 percent of the population has left, he says.
Working in shifts
He, like many others in the Ukrainian government, calls for the airspace over Ukraine to be closed to prevent further damage by the Russian air force.
– If the airspace had been closed, the war would have been over already. On the ground, we have stopped them because our troops are so motivated. There is no way they can beat us, because then they have to kill everyone in Ukraine, he says.
He himself knows that he faces intense and dangerous days as the leader of the oblast apparatus.
– We do not get enough sleep and work in shifts. Everyone is united and does not care what title they have. We are working to keep as many people as possible alive so that we can rebuild Ukraine.
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