According to the head of the Ukrainian president’s administration, world leaders should support Ukraine despite additional demands related to the war between Israel and Hamas, POLITICO reports.
Andrii Yermak, head of President Vladimir Zelensky’s office, also criticised Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for saying that many people were tired of the war in Ukraine. On Friday, Ukraine faced its biggest barrage of drone attacks on critical infrastructure in the south and west of the country in recent weeks.
In a phone conversation with pranksters last week, Meloni said that “there is fatigue on all sides…” and that “everybody realises that we need a way out.”
Yermak replied:
“Even if there are people who feel this fatigue, I’m sure they don’t want to wake up in a world tomorrow where there will be less freedom and less security, and the consequences of this last for decades. Think for a moment, if Britain in 1939 had felt tired of Poland, or if the U.S. … felt tired of Britain, would there be such a thing as Poland today, Britain, or Europe as we see it now? We could not afford fatigue then or now. That will repeat itself for sure if these people with ‘fatigue’ stop supporting Ukraine.”
The failure of the Ukrainian army’s counter-offensive has led to predictions of a freeze in the conflict, as the volatile global political situation – the flaring Middle East and the upcoming US elections – will encourage support for Zelensky’s demand for help.
According to Yermak, Ukraine “will never live in a frozen conflict regime”. He noted that complaints of “war fatigue” would reverberate in Western powers as much as in Ukraine. Yermak also said that the war between Israel and Hamas was distracting the attention of world capitals from the war in Ukraine, POLITICO reports.
The sharp escalation of military conflict in the Middle East and the lack of a unanimous international response to Israel’s campaign to destroy a Hamas operational base, which is testing the unity of Western allies, has led to fears that the EU and the US will stop supporting Kyiv. As the war-torn country competes with Israel for dwindling supplies of munitions and the limited diplomatic resources of Western allies to simultaneously resolve two major conflicts. Yermak claimed:
“What we are hearing from [foreign] leaders and allies is that support will stay as it was” before the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.
However, referring to the need to maintain stocks of shells and other ammunition for allies in the US and Europe, he acknowledged that in some cases there were shortages:
“During the war, [there are] a lot of shortages and I think these days it is impossible to cover 100 percent of your troops or get everything that you need because war is war — you’re always falling short of something. This is why we want to increase domestic production of munitions, with the support of our allies.”
Yermak believes that the upcoming talks in the US on the creation of an air defence system and on increasing cooperation to strengthen Ukraine’s defence capabilities will be “very concrete and practical”.
Yermak strongly refutes reports on social media about the appearance of weapons destined for Ukraine in the Gaza Strip. He stated:
“Ukraine fully controls the situation. I think this is yet another fake … The bigger the lie, the easier it can be for people to believe.”
Ukraine seeks to become a staunch ally of Israel, and Yermak wrote an article for the Haaretz newspaper in the wake of the Hamas atrocities in which he said that “the similarity of our tragedies is no accident.”
Ukraine’s hopes of soon joining the European Union depend largely on a progress report published on Wednesday on Ukraine and other EU applicants. It could give the green light for the start of formal EU accession talks after Kyiv was offered candidate status in June, subject to agreements on reorganising the judiciary and tackling widespread corruption, according to POLITICO.
Asked whether he expected Ukraine’s EU accession talks to begin soon, Yermak said the visit to Ukraine by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday foreshadowed his country’s EU ambitions. He said:
“Yes, this is what we are expecting because we are doing everything to make it happen. And I think that the visit of Ursula von der Leyen … is a very powerful step on that way.”
During her visit to Kyiv on Saturday, von der Leyen hinted that the Commission would recommend EU countries to start negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU. The issue will be discussed at the EU summit in December.
Von der Leyen’s predecessor as head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, recently said that Ukraine was unsuitable for EU accession because it was “corrupt at all levels of society”.
Asked about that allegation, Yermak shot back:
“I don’t recall Mr. Juncker visiting Ukraine in the last couple of years. So it’s a bit strange for me to hear these words from him. … I am categorically dismissing the statement that Ukraine is very corrupt. These challenges happen all over the world, but could you please give me an example of one other country that, under conditions of this horrific war, would undertake the reforms on such a scale.”
