FP LIVE - May 01, 2024 : “I’m thinking about only one thing,” said Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, on FP Live. “Air defense

 

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“I’m thinking about only one thing: air defense.”

Now that Congress has approved around $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, Washington is racing to get military supplies to the war’s front lines. It can’t come soon enough. It can’t come soon enough. Over the last several weeks, Russian troops have captured a number of villages near the eastern city of Avdiivka. Moscow has reportedly been trying to advance its troops as far as possible into Ukrainian territory ahead of May 9, the highly symbolic anniversary of the day in 1945 when the Soviet Union announced victory over Nazi Germany.  Kyiv has struggled to maintain its lines of resistance amid Russia’s latest onslaught. Until Congress agreed to send more aid, Ukrainian soldiers had been severely rationing their use of ammunition, by some accounts firing just one shell for every dozen or so by the Russians. With new U.S. funding finally secured, what military gear will Kyiv ask for? “I’m thinking about only one thing,” said Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, on FP Live. “Air defense.” Responding to Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who wrote in the New York Times last month that Ukraine’s foreign minister needs thousands of Patriot interceptors when America only makes 550 of them a year, Kuleba said: “If the war was only about math, you and I wouldn’t be talking today because the position of the minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine would not exist anymore; we would have lost the war already. Look at the map and at the size of the country that invaded Ukraine. And then look at the size of Ukraine. By pure mathematical calculations, we were supposed to be swallowed. That was actually the projection of the best military and political analysts ahead of the invasion.” Kuleba continued: “Whether you are Republican or Democrat, you have to remember one thing. Security and prosperity of America stems from the current world order. If that world order ceases to exist, the security and prosperity of American taxpayers will be immediately under attack. And if you cannot satisfy the military needs, if you cannot produce enough interceptors to help Ukraine win the war against the country that wants to destroy the world order, then how are you going to win in the war against perhaps an enemy who is stronger than Russia? Think two steps ahead.”

CATCH UP ON THE FULL CONVERSATION Watch the full interview.  See highlights from this FP Live. Read a condensed and edited transcript.

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