“There are Russian escape waves”
Resnikov outlines Kiev’s summer offensive
05/30/2023, 03:00 am
Ukraine’s major offensive is intended to shake Moscow’s certainty that it can win the war, says Ukraine’s defense minister. In addition to the F-16 fighter jets, Reznikov would also like to have Eurofighters.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov describes Russia’s defeat as the most important goal of his country’s forthcoming counter-offensive. “We have to shake the Russians’ certainty that they can win this war. Russia must and will lose this war,” Resnikov told the newspapers of the Funke media group and the French newspaper Quest-France.
“We will liberate all temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine until we restore the internationally recognized borders of 1991.” That includes Crimea as well as the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Resnikov sees real military progress for Ukraine in the summer. “In two or three places on the battlefield, in the south as well as in the east. There will be new waves of Russian soldiers fleeing on our territory,” he told the newspapers.
“Need international fighter jet coalition”
Against this background, Ukraine continues to push for the delivery of fighter jets for air defense. “If Great Britain and Germany were to combine their capacities for the Eurofighter, that would be an important step,” Resnikov said. “There is already an international coalition of main battle tanks with the core model of the German Leopard 2 and American Abrams and British Challengers. We could also form a fighter jet coalition with the core model F-16 and Eurofighters and Gripen.” Gripen jets are produced by the Swedish company Saab. “First of all, we would appreciate it if Germany would take part in training our pilots on Eurofighters.”
Britain, which has offered training, like Germany, does not have the F-16 fighter jets that Ukraine wants at all. The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag, Michael Roth, pleaded last week for a European alliance on the fighter jet issue.