00:00During your visit to Brussels, one of the main concerns these days for the European
00:05Union is the renewed drone incursions at the borders with the European Union when it comes
00:11to the Baltic states, Finland.
00:14What's your take on that?
00:16Well, Russia poses a huge threat to the security of the European Union and it was obvious that
00:22Russia will try to intimidate everyone, mainly the European Union and Russia's electronic
00:28warfare tries actually to distract Ukrainian drones and in this way to send these drones
00:34to the sovereign soil of our European partners.
00:37And this is a part of Russia's proxies war against the European Union and NATO.
00:42They want to intimidate the people of the European Union and they believe that in this case they
00:47will urge Europeans to turn its back on Ukrainians, which will never come to fruition.
00:55So, my take is that they are sending to all of us a very clear message.
01:02We need to create a stronger and better and more secure Union, I mean the European Union.
01:08And Ukraine could be the best and the perfect contributor to the security of the European
01:12Union.
01:12But do you see this, some of the threats being renewed and reinforced because, for example,
01:18last week not only there were so many drone incursions, the air raid alerts in the Baltic
01:23countries were ringing and this is shocking for NATO countries of the European Union as well.
01:30So, there is like a renewed push from Moscow to intimidate.
01:34Why now?
01:36Here is the thing, Putin is losing the war because he expected to take over Ukraine 12 years ago.
01:42Then he waged an all-out war five years ago.
01:46And he was actually excited to grab Kiev in three days or three weeks.
01:52In the end he lost around 1.5 million of the Russian soldiers or Russian cannon fodder.
01:59So, his economy is nose diving and there is some kind of skimmering even inside Russia.
02:08What is the best way out for Putin?
02:12And my reading of Putin is very clear.
02:14The only option for him which is on the table is actually to escalate the situation.
02:21And the reason is very clear.
02:22It is about his physical stance, his physical ability to survive as Mr. Putin and his political
02:31ability to survive as the President of Russia.
02:33So, he will escalate.
02:35That's the point number one.
02:38The second one, look, we are living in a completely different world.
02:41And it's obvious that that's a new type of warfare.
02:46And Europeans have to realize that this war relates not only to Ukraine, Putin, and not
02:54only Putin, but all this axis of evil under the auspices of China.
02:58They are going after an entire Western world.
03:01It means that they are going after every single European citizen, every single European country.
03:07So, and Ukraine actually today is on the front line of defending both Ukraine because we
03:14are defending ourselves and defending the European Union.
03:19So, my second message would be that we need to have strong Europe, a new kind of European
03:26defense union in collaboration with the NATO because I strongly object any idea of making
03:32NATO obsolete.
03:34But on the other hand, we need to do our best to help Ukraine to win this war.
03:41This would be a game changer.
03:43If Ukraine wins the war, we're going to live in a completely new world, which would be better
03:47than this one.
03:49But these warnings about the war, including the proxy war raging from Moscow towards Europe
03:55and towards the Western world.
03:56This is something that Ukraine has been warning the Europeans for over four years, certainly
04:01since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, let alone since the beginning of the first invasion
04:05in 2014.
04:07But it's only now that the Europeans do seem more concerned once they do have the air raid
04:13alerts on their territory.
04:15Well, this is the way sometimes politics works.
04:22People they do share some kind of sentiments towards Ukrainians and they do understand that
04:31the threat is real.
04:33But the real understanding comes only in case if you feel it, if you see it, if you can listen
04:41to an air raid siren.
04:44That's the way the psychology of every human being works.
04:47And let me reiterate once again.
04:49We are living in a completely new world and on the one hand, I wish every single European
04:56citizen to be in safety.
04:58On the other hand, I wish all of us to realize that you folks can be safe only in one
05:04case,
05:04if we as Ukrainians win this war, period.
05:10The Europeans now also seem to believe that they might have a strong and convincing voice
05:17in any sort of a diplomatic process with Putin, with the conversations happening around Brussels
05:23and the capitals on who could be the EU envoy, the EU negotiator.
05:30With this help, can they reason with Moscow?
05:33You know, frankly speaking, I admire all these kind of diplomatic chats and talks who's going
05:38to present the European Union first.
05:40The EU has its High Commissioner, which is Kaya Kalas.
05:44Would Putin accept Kaya Kalas?
05:45And that's an issue.
05:47And the thing is that I'm not sure that Putin is ready to accept anyone.
05:51What Putin is ready to accept, he is ready to accept Ukraine and actually Europeans surrender.
05:56And we have to realize this.
05:57It is not about the names.
05:59It's not about some kind of international or domestic politics.
06:03It is about policy.
06:05What kind of policy we're going to pursue towards Russia?
06:07The only language Putin understands is the language of force and strength.
06:12Let me remind you that in 2021, a number of European and American leaders tries to reach out to Putin
06:18to convince him not to do what he already decided to do.
06:25And it was actually an act of aggression against Ukraine.
06:28And I was frankly even astonished with the latest calls, call of President Macron.
06:33So I do understand that he acted in a good face trying to reach out to another dictator
06:38who is actually subordinate to war criminal Putin.
06:42I mean, Lukashenko, trying to persuade him to convince whatever.
06:45It doesn't work in this new contemporary world words don't matter.
06:52Words matter only in case if they are supported by a very strong actions.
06:57And that's the very reason why what is needed for Ukraine and for everyone in Europe is to realize that
07:03Putin will react only in case if we do our best to drain his economy, to drain his military,
07:10and actually to drain his political clout and political influence.
07:14And if Europeans, maybe with Americans, maybe miracle is to happen, who knows, fingers crossed,
07:22will press on Chinese, because China still has an upper hand in this war.
07:28And China is an accomplice. I want to be very clear about this, because they say they are neutral.
07:33That is not true.
07:36They are strategic partners with Putin. They signed a number of deals.
07:40They provided the bloodline for Putin's Russia, both financial and dual use materials, which is actually
07:47military one. They issued this blatant joint statement a few days ago during the state visit of Putin and Xi.
07:58It was completely anti-Western, anti-American and anti-Ukrainian.
08:02So if we find a way how to press on China or how to collaborate with China in order to
08:11press on Russia,
08:13the chances are very low, but still they exist. So this could actually drive the way to find some kind
08:22of,
08:22not a common ground, but to find some kind of way how to hold real talks with Putin.
08:31Because we never had any kind of real talks. And the Americans, they were always saying that,
08:35look, we are in deliberations with Russia and this is a peace talk.
08:39The Alaska summit.
08:40Oh gosh, it has nothing to do with the real peace talks. It was a special KGB operation in order
08:47just to outweigh
08:48both Americans and Ukrainians and to circumvent sanctions and actually to drive a wedge between
08:54Americans and Europeans. And now it became obvious, even for Americans, that Russians were not eager to
09:00hold any kind of kind of talks. Despite the fact that, for example, I was very vocal from the first
09:05days of these so-called sham talks.
09:08You met Putin.
09:10Correct.
09:11You are one of the very few people who actually, in person, met Vladimir Putin.
09:17And in the entire his clique, you know, his entourage for everyone, you know, all this
09:21contemporary of Ribbentrop, which is Lavrov and all these folks.
09:27What's your take as somebody who actually met Russia's president? Should there be the
09:31negotiating, let's say, with the EU represented either by Kayakalos or Antonio Košto? That's another
09:38name that's been circulating in Brussels. What will Putin do?
09:42Let me go back to square one. First, please do not underestimate this war criminal.
09:50He's not an idiot. He's a KGB operative. He has changed definitely dramatically in the last decade,
09:57no doubt. But he still has quite effective top military and security brass.
10:10So he's less strategic. He's more tactical.
10:16And he always has the sense of whether you are weak or you are strong.
10:23So he makes a sniff test of each person he meets.
10:31But whether we have an ability and whether do we have a chance to outplay him? Yes, we do.
10:39No doubt. But it all depends on the personality who is to talk to Putin and whether this personality,
10:48whether this political high-profile political figure would have an additional ammo that supports his
10:55talk. Otherwise, it's going to be just a cheap talk. So let me go back once again. I am not
11:03really
11:03focused on the names. I am focused on the policy. I am focused on what kind of strong arguments
11:14this special envoy would have in his portfolio. And whether this envoy would be just as one isolated
11:23single person or an entire NATO bloc would stand behind him. And we need an entire Western world
11:34who is to support and to underpin this kind of negotiator. But let me remind you once again,
11:39Putin is not eager. He is not ready for any kind of talks at this particular juncture.
11:45Maybe he would accept some kind of negotiator with the only very simple and obvious reason
11:50to buy time and once again to outweigh and to cheat us. Thank you. Thank you.
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