Ukraine continues to hope for an end to the war in the coming months.
kyiv even believes that it will be able to put an end to the Russian offensive within the year if the West multiplies the deliveries of weapons, in particular longer-range missiles.
“Only missiles with a range of more than 100 km will allow us to significantly accelerate the disoccupation of the territories,” said Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, in an interview with AFP on Wednesday.
Incidentally, the adviser believes that the amplification of Western arms deliveries will lead to the end of the war "either in late spring, or early summer, or in summer, or probably in fall ".
The long-range missiles will allow the Ukrainian army to reach the Russian arms depots that Moscow has moved away from the front in the occupied territories in order to put them out of reach, he explained.
The Ukrainians who are already using formidable American HIMARS systems (range of 80 kilometers) and have just received their French equivalent, unitary rocket launchers (LRU) (about 70 kilometers) are calling for American ATACMS missiles, with a range of 300 kilometers .
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With longer-range weapons, "we are going to destroy all the military infrastructure of the Russian army in the occupied territories, including in Donbass" (eastern Ukraine) and in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014, argued Mykhaïlo Podoliak.
However, Ukraine will not attack targets on Russian territory once it obtains long-range weapons, he said.
"We are waging an exclusively defensive war", he stressed, warning that without massive deliveries of heavy Western weapons, the war could last for "decades".
Armored vehicles and "heavy tanks" claimed by kyiv
In addition to missiles, kyiv also needs armored vehicles, in particular "heavy tanks", such as German Leopards that Ukraine is asking for in Berlin, and cannon artillery.
“France is already delivering light tanks to us.
It is very good.
But we still want to get 250-300-350 heavy tanks,” the official detailed.
Kyiv's priority needs also include more 155 millimeter caliber shells, combat drones capable of carrying out deep attacks on occupied territories and anti-aircraft defenses, he said.
According to him, the Europeans and Americans could soon speed up deliveries, because they "understood" that this is the key to the conflict.
"Our partners have clearly understood today that the transfer of arms to Ukraine in sufficient quantities will make it possible to limit this war to the occupied territories", he insisted.
