The war will not end with the liberation of territories: an interview with Podolyak about the plans of Putin and ATACMS

The occupiers continue to put pressure on the Donetsk region, but all this talk that Russia will come to the administrative borders and stop is absolute nonsense. The enemy will not stop at any borders, so the liberation of our territories does not mean the end of the war.

For this, all Putin's elite. What is needed for this, has the Armed Forces of Ukraine really already received ATACMS missiles and how much money should be given to the United States in an exclusive interview with Channel 24 Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said.

Russians “accidentally “donated millions of rubles to the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The governor of the Kemerovo region of Russia said that since the beginning of 2024, scammers have forced Kuzbass residents to transfer millions of rubles to accounts from which drones and weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine are paid for. It is not clear whether the Kuzbass residents are suffering or want to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And actually – how our special services are involved in this?

This is for me like. This is some kind of promotion of assistance to Ukraine from a strange person (governor of the Kemerovo region Sergei Tsivilev – Channel 24). It seems to me that not everyone makes a mistake when they finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kuzbass. And in general, millions of rubles are not enough. We need billions of rubles, taking into account the value of this currency.

In general, this indicates that Russia is not a homogeneous country, where everyone is exclusively in favor of destroying Ukraine. The percentage of people who are ready for Russia to have a different appearance is gradually increasing. Yes, this is a complex process, and I would like to speed it up. It is with such a speech that this gentleman (the governor of Kuzbass – Channel 24), or rather the subject, accelerates what will happen next in Russia.

I’ll remind you that on the eve of the war and to this day some countries continue to insist that Russia has powerful special services, they say they control everything and can conduct any campaign. So, they carry them out in countries that are not ready to counter them as harshly as possible. What Ukraine is ready to do, and is already doing at the level of the SBU, at the level of the Main Intelligence Directorate, is quite active actions. They lead to certain positive consequences.

Do not forget that we have already created such powerful military units from Russian citizens – this is the RDK, the Freedom of Russia Legion. They are moderated and advised by us, they are actively working on the territory of the aggressor country, proving that there is an alternative Russia. Likewise, these citizens who finance Ukraine, the purchase of drones, they also say that there is an alternative Russia.

I think that as Depending on how events develop on the front line, we will see much more such speeches. But only after everything is clear in this war, everything will go to the end, some person will come out and say, look, it was I who really helped the Armed Forces of Ukraine, I was involved in a promotional campaign to finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Is the APU really already received ATACMS

The Ukraine aid bill has passed all stages of voting in the United States. As far as I understand, in order to reach Ukraine faster, help is already located near our borders. Some even write that certain weapons have either already begun to arrive, or we already have them – meaning ATACMS. Allegedly, we used them to strike at Dzhankoy.

These are rather speculative publications (about transfer of weapons to Ukraine – Channel 24). Over the past six months, our weapons shortage has been constantly growing, so it was difficult to effectively carry out defensive measures and destroy, in particular, Russia’s logistics capabilities. During these six months, Russia, understanding the stakes in this war, was able to accumulate an appropriate amount of resources. This resource is currently available in Donetsk, Lugansk, Kharkov and Zaporozhye directions.

So, we need to write less. Today, reports have already appeared claiming that as long as Ukraine receives weapons, Russia will still be able to achieve some tactical success. I just can’t understand why media platforms do this. What do they want? For us to capitulate, to kneel?

Or we already have ATACMS ? No, if we have them, it will be visible in a completely different amount of destroyed Russian infrastructure at a distance of 200+ kilometers.

We have today there is a significantly increased ability to attack Russian infrastructure thanks to our long-range missiles and drones. But their number is not yet what we need for this stage of the war. Thanks to this United States relief package, we will not close the entire deficit within a month. But this means that we will significantly increase our ability to destroy on further approachesRussian occupation groups of Russia. Therefore, we must take such publications calmly.

The United States should transfer ATACMS missiles to Ukraine/Getty Images

Is Russia really filling warehouses with weapons

I emphasize once again that I don’t quite understand these depressive notes that continue to come from all sides. Today they are already saying that the Russian military-industrial complex works so effectively that it not only provides a sufficient amount of weapons for the front line, but also fills warehouses. This is not at all true.

If political decisions are made that show that Russia must lose, but the intelligence of a particular country reports that there is there are quite a lot of weapons that are not on par with the quantity that is being transferred to Ukraine, then other statements must be made.

For example, like this: “we see that Russia is accumulating weapons in warehouses, accordingly, we are increasing aid packages to Ukraine by such and such a percentage. We are increasing investments in our own production, for example, long-range missiles, drones or electronic warfare in such and such a proportion.” It seems to me that this is the way to comment on this, and not to depress both our countries and Ukraine, which has continued to resist for more than two years. Moreover, we see that despite the shortage of weapons in Ukraine, Russia has not made significant progress, to put it mildly.

About depressive publications of Western media

Politico writes that the White House and Congress are not sure that the new aid package will be enough for Ukraine to win. Anonymous sources stated that the dynamics of the fighting have changed significantly over the past few months. In particular, Advisor to the US President Jake Sullivan said that Ukraine was unable to hold Avdiivka, which is also the fault of the United States, because it did not provide weapons on time.

Anonymous sources are, of course, extremely “fantastic” expertise. They “know everything.” When a person is confident in his words, holds a certain position, and has access to certain information and believes that his words will be important, then he will most likely not be anonymous. This looks strange – we all understand, but we will only be anonymous.

In the end, if you understand that the situation along the front line has changed, what it all looks different than it did a few months ago, if you understand that assistance is not enough to effectively defeat Russia, then why can’t you write that Ukraine needs additional help?

< p dir="ltr">Thus, Politico writes that everyone sees that today’s assistance to Ukraine, taking into account the funds that Russia spends on the war, is not enough to turn the front line and effective offensive actions. And so they would have to decide to consult again and plan for themselves to significantly increase these aid packages.

I think , so it would be logical for Polico to register, correctly? And not to record that the source said that the assistance we provided to Ukraine was not enough, and therefore we will again wait until there are some problems on the front line.

Let me return to what is in reality. 61 billion from the United States is not just about the specific material capabilities of Ukraine. This is about symbolism, which for us clearly defines that the coalition is back in full force; that everyone understands that there will be no compromise in this war; that if you invested 20 or 50 billion today, then tomorrow you will need to invest in Ukraine. Because this war must end with the defeat of Russia. This is key.

Another important component. Europe understands that the United States is a reliable partner and a reliable ally, and together they can build a completely different defense and offensive system in Ukraine. Together. You and I understand that Europe has underinvested in its military production, its armies, and therefore has much fewer weapons in its warehouses than in the United States. From a technological point of view, of course, the key manufacturers are American. They dominate the global arms market today.

I like the position of the United States – they said that they will not give up their reputation as a leading country. A country that knows how to protect the values ​​that are important and the rules by which we want to live tomorrow. It is very important. They invest in security.

Everyone understands that Russia will not return to some kind of law-abiding status. It will continue to behave extremely aggressively, maximally destructive for global security and the political system as a whole. Therefore, we must put an end to the political history of this type of Russia if we want to have the next 50 years of a guaranteed future. This all looks very, very cool.

Is it necessary to further increase assistance to Ukraine? Yes, of course. Of course, you can write depressive texts, but you can also talk about specifics. For example, that Russia does not have a strong economy. Yes, it has a resource-rich economy, but you can limit the resources it spends on war.

How to do this? We have already repeatedly discussed effective sanctions, reformatting these sanctions, banning companies from operating in the Russian market. We cannot pretend that we have imposed sanctions here, but if we need titanium, then we will continue to work with the Russian VSMPO-Avisma. That’s not how the system works.

We still have to hold out for one or two years and look for alternatives. It is necessary to change this attitude towards Russia. It cannot be a country with which you will continue to have business relations.

And about the specifics. We need to return to analyticity and assessment of the situation on the front line. What resources does Russia use? How can these resources be reduced by direct attacks? What is needed for this? More ATACMS? Let's do it. More Storm Shadow? Let's.

The aviation component, because today guided aerial bombs are a key factor in what is happening along the front line? This is the only thing that needs to be removed as much as possible. Yes, everything else also needs to be done, but removing guided aerial bombs is a major task today. This requires tactical aviation. Not talk, but a lot of F-16s with the latest avionics.

How much money should Ukraine give to the USA

We They said that this 61 billion US dollars could be given to us as a loan or as assistance. Which option did you choose?

There are different options. There is a loan, that is, credit funds that will be used for social economic programs – more than 7 billion. We will have to decide how we will give them away, or they will be written off, but these are completely different negotiation platforms. I think we will find compromises.

But the main funds that go to military assistance are the money that remains in the United States. There are funds that have already been allocated for the supply of weapons. They will be used for purchases, for government orders from American military corporations. That is, this money does not go to Ukraine at all. Weapons are given from warehouses, and instead of these weapons there will be an order for the purchase of similar types.

There is another component. More than $20 billion will go toward longer-term programs. That is, for the purchase of weapons that we will need in 6 months and the like. All this will be let out.

Therefore, a significant part of this money goes as MTA – material and technical assistance. A small part, as I already said, will be a loan. It will need to be discussed with our partners. Because the President of the United States has the option to write off these funds in various tranches. But these are all negotiation processes. The main thing is weapons.

Today it is clearly clear that there will be the fastest possible delivery of projectiles, missiles, anti-missile defenses, electronic warfare systems and the like. All this will immediately arrive on the territory of Ukraine, within a week or two. And this will already influence the course of events along the front line.

The US President can write off Ukraine's credit debt/Getty Images

What will Ukraine be capable of with new aid packages

Over the past week, many partners have announced assistance to Ukraine: the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, which announced the arrival of the first supply of ammunition. Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that we are waiting for at least 7 Patriot systems. Having received powerful assistance, Ukraine will use it only to level the situation along the front line or will be able to return the occupied territories?

Both one and two. And to level the situation, because these are defense assets and we need to use weapons to further invest the deficits that were artificially created along the front line over the past six months.

Why is this happening? Because there are many processes, and they gradually unfold. But the key thing is the absolute understanding today not only by Europeans, but also by Americans of the absolute inadequacy and psychotic state of Russia.

After the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, they They saw that the Russians are simply inadequate. They saw what would happen if Russia did not lose. The Russians again began to become impudent and behave as aggressively as possible in the global market. They keep talking about how they will kill, kill, kill.

Russia believed that it could do this demonstratively in order to suppress the Ukrainians as much as possible and bring them to their knees. They began to kill the civilian population very specifically – with missiles, drones that flew into city centers, high-rise buildings, simply into residential and critical infrastructure.

All this returned Ukraine, relatively speaking, to the front pages. Everyone began to say that, yes, of course, we do not want to fix this legally, but morally we are recording a significant increase in the genocidal component that Russia is using in this war.

They also saw the absolute inadequacy of Vladimir Putin and Nikolai Patrushev. I especially like all their statements, they say, “we offer to sit down at the negotiating table, but we will not stop the fire, but we will continue to kill the civilian population of Ukraine.” This was said by Sergei Lavrov.

An equally inadequate subject is Dmitry Peskov, who looks impressive and says, “Putin is for a peaceful resolution of the issue, but this is not peace initiative.” This all indicates schizophrenic conditions. If you want to have scalable problems, you have to talk to them about something. Our European and American partners understand that this is definitely not about any agreements. That is, Russia will become impudent.

In addition, Israel is an important component. Events in the Middle East significantly influenced the cultural and information environments in European countries, the USA, and Canada. Because it turned out that you can completely “close the sky”, build passive protection, and it doesn’t cost very much, which is cool. This way, tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives can be saved for humanistic and any other reasons.

This is a passive defense. This does not mean that it would be necessary to attack enemy territory, escalate, scale. When a missile that has no right to fly into the airspace of a sovereign country is shot down, this is not a violation of international humanitarian law. On the contrary, it operates within the framework of humanitarian law. This significantly shocked the near-political elites of large countries.

They cannot answer the question of why they did not do this for Ukraine. Why has Russia been allowed to increase this genocidal component for more than two years? They say they are not ready to legally recognize this as a genocidal war, a war to destroy another sovereign nation. Because these are completely different consequences.

Then in general it is necessary to suspend Russia’s membership in international organizations, suspend trade, and not buy grain and fertilizers from it. Or use the capabilities of the shadow fleet to purchase oil. They are not ready to legally recognize the genocidal component in Russia’s actions, but from a moral point of view they must admit that it is waging an exclusively genocidal type of war – deliberately hitting the civilian population en masse.

Moreover, it must be recognized that Russia has clearly stated its intentions in this war. This is not “protection” of the mythical “population of Donbass”, some kind of demilitarization or denazification. It's all fiction. Russia's only intention in this war is the destruction of Ukraine. Not even as a concept of a state – the Russians want to occupy territory, build one big camp and abuse the local population for decades because of a feeling of hatred and because of a feeling of revenge for the humiliation of the Russian neo-imperial concept.

It is impossible to come to an agreement in this war, because they will still kill us, they will look for opportunities to start the third, fourth, fifth stage of the war, until they destroy other countries, in in particular, Moldova.

We see what processes are taking place today not only in Transnistria, but also in Gagauzia (an autonomous territorial entity in Moldova – Channel 24). There is the so-called “opposition” called by Ilan Shor (a Moldovan oligarch who was convicted in Chisinau, but escaped from Moldova – Channel 24), who even holds congresses in Moscow. It is clear that there will also be an attack on the Baltic countries, because Russia fiercely hates them, just like Ukraine. The West has realized all this.

Then the question arises, what to do? Watch news feeds, read that a rocket has arrived in the center of Kharkov, in the center of Dnieper, or Odessa, watch photos, videos, how many people died, how children who lost their parents scream, how parents who lost their children scream, and fall asleep every evening as if nothing happened?

Or we still make a decision? In particular, regarding the fact that the concept of the Russian state of today's type must die. Yes, they realize this today, and therefore everything is gradually moving in the right direction: we are increasing military aid packages for Ukraine, increasing investments.

A little later, unfortunately, in 6 – 8 months, when there will be a significant increase in military production in European countries, then we will have much more of the necessary tools in order to inflict significant losses on the Russian army.

< h2 class="anchor-link" dir="ltr" id="One way to end the war" name="One way to end the war">The only way to end the war

The situation around Chasovoy Yar in the Donetsk region is difficult. This is Ukrainian territory, but in Russia they say that this is “the birthplace of Joseph Kobzon” and they voice the timing of the capture of the city, as well as access to the administrative borders of the Donetsk region until May 9. Another date, another attempt and another city wiped off the face of the earth.

Let's put the accents correctly. There is no “Kobzon’s homeland”. There are also no administrative boundaries for the Donetsk region for Russia. This is Ukrainian land. We cannot say that the Russians want to go to the administrative borders. What is this? They just want to destroy another part of the territory of Ukraine. Then go further, destroy another part of the territory.

This is an absolutely false illusion – to pretend that we are talking about some kind of administrative border, and they are starting to talk about it our partners say. Like, “Russia will reach the administrative borders of the Donetsk region and stop.” This is wrong. And there is no need to talk about it. They just leave. They have this opportunity and destroy everything that comes their way. They simply destroy, destroy, and plunder all our cities. These are locusts. There are no borders for her – neither administrative borders nor sovereign ones.

This is a war for existence. They will continue until we destroy this wave. Therefore, Ukraine needs more weapons. We said this a year ago, and two years ago, and we say it today. This is the only way to stop all this, these are not some mythical administrative boundaries. Don't make this mistake. There are no borders, there is no longer a question of liberating the territory and the war is over – no.

The question is that the Putin conscription elite must disappear. And to do this, they must lose the initiative and collapse along the front line and suffer significant tactical defeats. They must flee to Russian territory with arms in hand and start their riots there. This is the only way to end this war. Everything else is fiction.

Ukrainian defenders/Getty Images

Because we say so that “The Russians will reach the administrative borders of the Donetsk region – so what, they will stop? Or they will stop using missiles and drones. Or they will not go further in the Kharkov or Zaporozhye direction? This is an illusion. The same as it was in 2014. Russia captured Crimea, and after that the Russians will be our “friends”, we will sign the “Minsk Agreements” with them and somehow arrange a life together there.

No, this was a specifically stated springboard for scaling up the war. The “Minsk agreements” were provoking the aggressor to further aggression. It's the same today. There is no administrative boundary. There is an enemy who destroys and “eats” our land. We either destroy it, no matter where it is, or it destroys us. Therefore, we must persistently say three key things:

• there is no compromise in this war;
• in this war, if we want to have a future not only for Ukraine, but also for the countries, especially the Eastern Europe, it is necessary for Russia to lose;
• for this you need to have the appropriate amount of appropriate weapons – right now.

It is clear that we will not have the appropriate amount of weapons right now, taking into account all the nuances. However, by accepting help from the United States, we hope that finally the pro-Ukrainian coalition fully understands that this war must lead to only one ending – Russia must lose. Not like it was in the first year of the war, when everyone thought that Ukraine would fight a little, and then we would model something politically and diplomatically.

Today The decision in Congress, in the Senate, the decision of President Biden clearly states that it is necessary to saturate Ukraine with the appropriate instrument as much as possible. And Ukraine must saturate itself with this tool.

The Pope spoke about negotiations with Putin

It's good that the Senate and President Biden have this understanding. Because, for example, Pope Francis has a different understanding. He states that “negotiated peace is better than endless war.” Perhaps in a few days he will say that he was “misunderstood” and his words were “taken” out of context.

We need to be calmer about what the Pope says, because he has a different vision of life in general. It is certainly not about war. This is the Pope, this is the Vatican. It's generally about discussion, about forgiveness and the like. This is normal for them.

They cannot talk about war, that it is necessary to fight as harshly as possible. This is not true. And it would be an illusion if we wanted them to say that. There is no need to live in illusion.

The Pope must speak as he speaks. The question is different. Should he understand that, unfortunately, there is no negotiating option here today? Because when they come to kill you, the killer does not talk to you about anything. The killer has come to kill you. You can protect your life.

Pope Francis/Getty Images

However, from the point of view of conceptuality, moral and ethical choice, the Pope says things that are inherent to Christianity, and this is understandable to me. We should not expect him to advance the war. It would be wrong. We should not expect him to understand war, its nature. We should not expect him to understand the genocidal type of war that Russia is waging. This is what we should expect from politicians who more deeply understand what modern Russia is.

From the point of view of what he says, this is absolutely understandable. This is his concept, which is aimed at life. From the point of view, unfortunately, not that he should have understood that the killer is Russia; it is not waging a war for some conditional territory, for some values. She came, based on irrational hatred, to kill as many Ukrainians as possible, so she is not interested in any negotiations.

Any negotiations that Russia is talking about, this is about capitulation, about an operational pause and about freezing the conflict for any period. Because during this time they will be able to significantly increase the level of mobilization and the level of militarization of the economy. This is what the Pope should not be aware of, we must be aware of this. Therefore, we calmly treat any statements that he makes.

Everything that the Pope says today does not at all affect the course of events on the front line, on the course of political events around this war, on our partners, coalition allies, who, on the contrary, talk about the need to increase military assistance to Ukraine. This certainly does not affect the decisions made by the military-political leadership of Ukraine, because it proceeds exclusively from the situation in which we find ourselves. And the situation is very simple: they came to kill us, so we must destroy the one who came to kill us.

The second part of the interview with Mikhail Podolyak read soon on the 24 Channel website!