Ukraine Deputy PM on NATO and the war in Ukraine | DW News

Ukraine Deputy PM on NATO and the war in Ukraine | DW News

[Music]
uh thanks so much um M Stan thank you uh
for talking to toy um we’re speaking on
the day that the NATO Secretary General
um has been visiting your country Kev um
and it was striking to hear him say to
NATO countries that their delays in in
delivering uh weapons and ammunition to
Ukraine has resulted in a scenario where
we have the Russian Armed Forces making
ground is Ukraine going to lose this
war if Western allies if your allies do
not step up in the way of more
commitments but also making good on the
commitments that they’ve already
made well uh indeed this is the second
visit of Secretary General to K
throughout the war and it’s very uh
important to see that both president
zalinski and Secretary General have a uh
open air uh press conference uh just
under the under the open Skies it it is
a very symbolic element uh giving us the
hope that now when the decision of the
US Congress has been taken the massive
disruptions in the delivery that we had
over the last six months which affected
a uh massive uh massive causes of
attacks to civilian infrastructure
simply because of a shortages in the in
the ammunition and inability to make all
the elements of air defense operational
because of the lack of the missiles uh
this is uh something with that we have
overpassed the the new uh contributions
are on their way so at least we can
speak about the security of the critical
infrastructure and security of the
Cities which gives us more time to
concentrate on a front line uh in fact
Secretary General stalberg is very well
briefed in the security situation just
last week uh he um upon the request of
zalinsky made a meeting of the defense
ministers to and uh there is a number of
decisions which are already on the table
on urgent measures on N defense the
followup has been today in KF uh and uh
it’s very clear that Ukraine will always
find a way to to find for for for for
itself but I think it’s not something
that should care uh less that the whole
Democratic world could lose and I think
that there are plenty decisions on the
table both at the U platform but also at
the nature which could really make uh
Ukrainian people feel more secure but
the front line is much more stabilized
you talked about the US um support
package which was substantial but it was
also half a year late and could be the
last have you factored in that this
could be the last support package coming
from the United States in light of the
fact that there is an election in
November that completely changes the
game uh well uh for us it’s uh the
clarity and uh delivering on its
commitment is it’s important because the
decision that we have now uh on uh the
military support for Ukraine voted by
Congress this has been part of the
commitments agreed at the Ramin format
among more than 50 uh Partners um uh
more than half a year ago so and uh it
was very important that uh you cannot
substitute this disruption in uh in uh
in provision of military support because
these are not the finances not the loans
you can get somewhere it’s the physical
military equipment which is uh only
where it has been committed for so it’s
not only Ukraine but all the Allies were
now ready for this kind of scenario so
it’s important to have this decision for
this year but for the next year of
course we will be ready for any kind of
scenarios and we are working hardly with
the European Union to build a stronger
European Defense pillar we’re working
hard on advancing on implementation of
the European Defense industrial strategy
but also mobilizing addition additional
resources to um ensure that our
capability uh as European institutions
are in Defenders is stronger and we’re
also working on a number of decisions
for the Washington Summit of NATO uh in
particular when when it comes to um
measures which NATO as an alliance could
take to secure uh airspace and there are
number discussions on the table and I’m
sure that we will be able to see some of
them already in Washington so uh for us
it was really important to have the
decision for this year it was in fact
vital and for the next year we still
have time to advance and to learn our
lessons and to make sure that we have a
backup scenarios even for the strongest
commitments um at the same time
uh different to what we had right now
it’s already now where we have a
significant amount of bilateral security
commitments with France with Germany
most um uh most ambitious with Great
Britain and this has been recently
announced that Ukraine and us will have
a bilateral security commitment so uh
from the landscape point of view the
situation will totally be different next
year the new mobilization uh
legislation has received a lot of back
Clash um especially within Ukraine for a
number of reasons one uh being that
there is no scope for demobilization for
people who’ve been on the front lines
for a significant period of time but
also the situation around men outside of
Ukraine having restricted access to
Consular Services because of the new
legislation um in addition to concerns
raised by human rights groups some
experts say it’s not going to be very
effective is this piece of legislation
going to help you from where you stand
from where your government stand is it
going to help increase the number of
troops that are required because this is
anywhere from 300,000 to half a million
well U it’s really interesting to hear
such an in-depth understanding of uh and
um knowledge about so many nuances so
let’s start from the point that it’s not
a new legislation so the leg legislative
base for the mobilization and the
serving in Armed Forces has been there
even before these Amendments have been
adopted so the procedure was there
including the elements of the
demobilization there was an idea because
basically we have a full scale War this
is a massive military engagement and it
requires some procedures needs to be
improved including the demobilization
procedures because we’re talking about a
huge amount of people uh which need not
only to uh leave the the front line but
somebody who will substitute them so
this needs to be discussed in a more
details at the same time uh uh president
has a power and he made some decisions
to De demobilize some troops so it
doesn’t uh restrict us from making this
decision secondly we need to make an
audit of the potential for the
mobilization thus we need to make sure
that we have the proper data of those
men who are BR but also those men who
are among the internally displaced
persons because this is our almost five
million people within the country uh of
all people who have been internally
displaced so there’s been a massive
Shuffle so we need a data to be
collected so we have t undertaken some
temporary measures allowing us to have
this audit through uh provision of the
consul service and registration of a
male ukrainians uh so that we could have
the data it doesn’t necessarily
immediately affect the mobilization to
the front line it’s just the collecting
of the data I mean uh and it’s really uh
uh not very good to uh you know um uh
make uh uh make any Assessments in that
regard because the war is in Ukraine the
the shelling are there and they are like
the best of our people are dying and
fighting on a front line and uh this is
there’s no good solution when it comes
to serving in the armed forces in a
country of War but the solution should
be done because we have to survive and
we have to fight but rest assur that we
will do our best to make it uh with the
understanding that the human life is on
the first
turn um I have two more questions for
you uh the first one being we are in
Europe um weeks away from a
parliamentary election here that could
see uh far right uh parties make
significant gains in terms of their
representation uh in the parliament we
know that a lot of these uh parties are
opposed to European enlargement um they
have also uh been critical of increased
support to
Ukraine what are your sort of feelings
around that well of course I wouldn’t
make a general line in in this negative
connotation about the different radical
or Warf far right groups in the
parliament it’s already a reality that
there are Tendencies like that but at
the same time not you cannot equalize
everybody because we have different
situation in with the different
political droops in the different
countries and mostly we see that um even
those political alliances which were
critical they we always find the ground
to work I’m speaking about the Slovak uh
Ukrainian relations I’m speaking with
the um on the relations with the new uh
Dutch uh with the Dutch Parliament so uh
we have been able to find the Common
Grounds on most on most of the issues so
so uh we are looking uh
and following the elections closely but
I don’t think that this is a momentum
where this kind of Simple Solutions
could be taken it’s in fact it’s about
the future of Europe and uh it’s not
only Ukraine which is a at stake as a
country it’s the capability of European
Union to defend itself because the war
is at NATO borders at EU borders and I
don’t think that something which is used
as the pre-electoral rhetorics could
really be materialized in a policy
because it’s it’s about the the security
policy of every country uh my final
question uh Deputy Prime Minister of
course your Forte is is Europe but we
know that uh president zalinski at least
is expected to be visiting uh South
Africa at some point uh in in this year
uh presumably uh to to secure political
support outside of places like Brussels
where we are today um could you talk to
us about how important that is for
Ukraine to be able to win over uh hearts
and Minds in other parts of the world in
in the global South for example parts of
the world that have been perhaps more
reluctant than here in the
west uh I think it’s very important that
we encircle the discussion about
10-point uh peace formula of President
zalinsky because it’s not only a peace
formula for Ukraine is the real uh new
security PCT Global Security PCT which
allows uh gives a lot of answers and a
new potential to uh ensure the security
of every part of the world whereever
there could tension could come it’s
about the nuclear security it’s about
the security and the protection of the
human rights it’s about uh uh prisoners
of War it’s about the the uh justice and
accountability for the crimes committed
so uh we’re looking forward for having
the peace formula Summit in Switzerland
and uh it will only be successful if all
parts of the world would find a common
background on that and the background of
it is the um respect to the un uh
Charter uh so so I think that the
nearest commitment and the nearest
ability to have this uh Global
discussion will be in swiland already in
June this
year please allow me indulge me one more
we have an audience uh in parts of the
world where the narrative around NATO
this war Russia is not balanced could
you tell people people who are under the
impression who receive this propaganda
that NATO aggravated this war what is
your appeal to these people in terms of
what they should understand about what
has happened to your country and the
price that you are
paying uh it’s um it’s a very
interesting question when we’re talking
about the role of NATO in uh in this in
current security architecture in
European Union uh basically uh I’m sure
that NATO could have prevented this war
by
making a strong commitment to Ukraine
making Ukraine a member of the alliance
thus granting the security of Ukraine
and also being in a in a direct dialog
uh even with the Russian Federation so
but at this point of time uh it is a war
of aggression of Russian Federation
against Ukraine and NATO has not played
a role here and it’s a bilateral uh
commitment of the Allies to to support
Ukraine’s ability to restore its uh its
Independence so I would say that NATO
have never been playing a role uh in
this uh in this aggression but it might
play a role uh in uh ending this war and
making uh um uh European continent
secure again both by putting u a
security guarantees for Ukraine but also
for Russia at some
point thank you very much ma’am
appreciate it

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