Interview of Nadija Afanasieva for Veridica

"Patriotism has become a key reason for the exceptional courage of the Ukrainian army, which no one expected at first. Ukrainians have realized: either they will defend their country or they will die", - Nadija Afanasieva said in an interview with Veridica.

 

The director of Ukrainian Institute for International Politics noted that every Ukrainian has found his mission in this war. Some joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine, others became volunteers or others have been fighting on the information or IT front.

 

Everyone who works in the government does not have breaks or days off. In Ukraine, the working day began on February 24 and continues to this day. We in Ukraine understand that it is a matter of life and death, so everybody is mobilized.

russia's tasks in the war - from "denazification" to "noble goals"

Putin had similar "noble goals" for Georgia in 2008 and for Moldova in 1992. Moscow has always said that it intervenes militarily in these countries to defend ethnic russians, because they are allegedly suffering and being killed.

We can see now in Ukraine that those cities that are being destroyed to a very high degree are mostly inhabited by Russian-speakers. russia is committing genocide against all Ukrainians, without asking what language they speak.

Threat from unrecognized Transnistria

Transnistria can be used to attack Ukraine, but its military capability is low.

In general, there is a risk of strikes from three sides: Belarus from the north, Transnistria from the west, and the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk from the east.

As for Belarus, we understand that Lukashenko doesn't have that confidence in his army. And the Belarussian army is much more poorly equipped than the Russian one, and this war has shown us where the money for the modernization of latter was spent.

In addition, For example, Ukraine has many volunteer Belarusians in its territorial security troops. And not only Belarusians, there are also Lithuanians, Poles, Georgians, etc. We have an entire international battalion.

The Transnistrian army is poorly equipped and unprepared. However, we cannot expect Ukraine to take any action against the Transnistrian army. Transnistria is not a priority for Ukraine. The experience of eight years of war and constant training with modern weapons make our army professional. Since 2014, every citizen of Ukraine has paid a fee for the army. And I'm not talking about Ukrainian volunteers who can raise a few thousand dollars in half an hour to buy, for example, a high-performance drone to help the Ukrainian army. We are talking here about a war with modern weaponry.

The full version of the interview: https://bit.ly/38Qj8hd