Victory over the Russian Federation will be the destruction of its ability to wage wars of aggression, said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze

As a result of the full-scale war, which has lasted 8 years and 300 days, Ukraine has certainly become a serious geopolitical player. At the same time, this is not so much an achievement of our diplomacy as of the Defence Forces and society. The Chair of the Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze stated this during the public discussion ‘Diplomatic Summary of the Year’ at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center. According to her, neither the enemy, nor our partners or part of Ukrainian society expected such a mobilisation.

‘If we had not expelled the enemy from Kyiv region, Chernihiv region, Sumy region, Kharkiv region, part of Kherson region, we would not be able to talk about any diplomatic achievements today. In addition, we must be aware that granting the status of a candidate for EU accession is a tectonic shift, which was enabled due to the heroism of the Ukrainian people,’ the Chair of the Committee emphasised. Another important result of the war, according to her, is sobering of many players, in particular in Europe, from the point of view of assessing Russia and the axis of evil that it is building.

At the same time, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze drew attention to the fact that in many places in the world there is still no awareness of what Ukraine stands for and what it is fighting against. Russia’s influence is still strong in Africa, Asia and Latin America: ‘There is a lack of systematic diplomatic work in those areas that remain conditionally neutral, cautiously support the axis of evil or wait for some perks to take someone's side.’ Also, she believes, it is necessary to oppose dangerous calls for security guarantees for the Russian Federation, freezing the war or unconditional negotiations with the Russians in 2023.

The most important task now is to obtain required weapons. ‘It is necessary to overcome this certain artificiality in restraining Ukraine's military capabilities due to the irrational fear of turning the war into a war with NATO and the USA. Russia does not need pretexts, it will make them up, regardless of the reality,’ emphasised Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze.

The Chair of the Committee also noted that there is currently a lack of serious intellectual efforts, including on the part of Ukraine, to answer the question of what will be victory in this war: ‘For me, it means the destruction of Russia's military, economic, financial, and technological ability to lead wars of aggression. It means to indemnify us for all damages. It means a different Russia, not only within its current borders. It also means the immediate accession of Ukraine to NATO after the victory. We certainly may not make the mistake that the West made after the Cold War, when it thought that Russia could be civilised through economic integration,’ she said.