For Russian President Vladimir Putin, victory in the conflict in Ukraine is a victory over the United States, the Kremlin is set for a long war. Handing over Ukrainian territories to Russia for the sake of a peace agreement would be a “cruel betrayal”, the new head of Ukraine’s National Security Council, Oleksandr Litvinenko, said.
The transfer of territories to Russia in exchange for peace would be a “cruel betrayal” towards Ukrainians, Alexander Litvinenko said in an interview for The Economist. The new head of Ukraine’s National Security Council believes that a short truce will inevitably be followed by a new conflict.
In his opinion, next time Russia will not make any mistakes, but “will prepare its operation much more thoroughly, according to all the laws of military art”. A Ukrainian victory, on the other hand, would reduce rather than increase the risk of confrontation, because world “leaders will become risk-averse.” A Ukrainian defeat, on the other hand, would be interpreted as proof that direct conflict works, and its domino-like consequences could be seen with China and Taiwan, for example.
“Too many people are watching this war too closely,” Litvinenko added.
The Ukrainian national security chief believes that in the minds of Russians, victory in Ukraine means victory over the United States, and Vladimir Putin has not yet backed away from his goals of creating a buffer zone in Ukraine. The Russian president and the Russian economy are now set for a long war, and the West is not yet willing to challenge him unequivocally.
We will remind, earlier Vladimir Putin called Western ideas of a new world order hypocrisy. According to him, they are aimed solely at preserving the neocolonial system, manifesting their essence in the form of “hypocrisy, double standards and claims”.