We talk less about them since the Hamas attacks in Israel, but Ukrainian fighters continue to struggle in the trenches and pay with their lives. If the wavering of support in certain countries results in a reduction in aid, especially in the delivery of ammunition, it will be increasingly difficult for the Ukrainians to resist the Kremlin’s assaults, warns Igor Tchernev.
What impact could the war in the Middle East have on that in Ukraine?
Attention has obviously turned to Israel and there has been a shift in the debate on how to continue helping Ukraine. My impression is that some are starting to see the war in Ukraine as something that has become part of the routine. The reality is that we continue to lose soldiers at the front like we lost a year ago. It didn’t stop. We are still at war.
In the United States, Republicans are pitting aid to Israel against aid to Ukraine. What are the risks of American disengagement?
We are already feeling the effects. American military aid has decreased: stocks of weapons and ammunition are getting lower and lower. This harms our capabilities on the battlefield. If we do not have enough shells, we will not be able to counter Russia’s attacks and even less regain ground in the counter-offensive. Unfortunately, Ukraine is being held hostage by partisan politics in the United States.
PHOTO GENYA SAVILOV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A member of the Ukrainian forces preparing to go to the front
Did you feel a similar divide during your time in Canada?
We do not see a feeling of fatigue in Canada. We have the impression of having constant and complete support from the population. I even asked Canadian MPs and senators to have conversations with American elected officials! I must still say that I was surprised to witness a division in the Canadian Parliament when the Conservatives opposed the modernized free trade agreement between Canada and Ukraine.
What are the most urgent needs for the Ukrainian army?
Munitions. The ratio between the quantity of Russian shells and ours is disproportionate: every day, we use between 5,000 and 6,000, while they fire 20,000, even 25,000. We have managed to increase our production of shells, but our allies must do the same. [Le gouvernement canadien a annoncé vendredi dernier un don de près de 11 000 fusils d’assaut et de plus de 9 millions de cartouches du fabricant ontarien Colt Canada.]
Member of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, Igor Tchernev was in Canada last week.
NATO meeting
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly is meeting with her NATO counterparts this week in Brussels. She will reaffirm Canada’s promise to support Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression and will continue to advocate for Kyiv’s membership “as soon as conditions permit,” her office was told. On Monday, the alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, maintained that Ukraine continued to inflict “heavy losses” on Russia after some of the “most intense” fighting since the start of the war in February 2022. Since Kyiv launched its counter-offensive in the spring, no decisive breakthrough has been achieved by Ukrainian forces and some allied countries are concerned. But for the NATO boss, “although the front line has not moved”, the Ukrainian forces continued to be very effective on the battlefield.
Melanie Marquis, The Pressand Agence France-Presse
The Russians continue their assaults on Avdiïvka
Ukraine said Monday that the Russians continued to attack Avdiivka, a town in the east that has become one of the hottest spots on the front where, according to pro-Kremlin bloggers, Moscow’s army has made advances during the weekend. “The enemy continues to carry out offensives around Avdiïvka,” Andriï Kovalyov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian army, declared on national television, without saying whether these attacks had been repelled or not. The day before, the army had however assured that the Russian raids had “failed”. For more than a month, this almost surrounded industrial city has faced incessant attacks from Russian forces. Briefly falling into the hands of pro-Russian separatists armed by Moscow in 2014, it now marks the front line in this area and symbolizes Ukrainian resistance. The Rybar Telegram channel, close to the Russian army and widely followed, declared that Russian soldiers had seized an “industrial zone southwest of Avdiïvka” on Saturday evening.
France Media Agency