The Kyiv Independent’s Chris York sat down with author, historian, and Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on May 9, which mark the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II, are one of the country’s biggest public events of the year. President of the Ukrainian Society of Switzerland Andrej Lushnycky who sheds some light on the things Putin would rather you didn’t know about World War II.
Washington’s involvement may also help mitigate political opposition in Europe, while giving the U.S. strategic visibility over future Russian energy flows, sources told Reuters.
The agreement, signed on April 30, establishes a joint investment fund between Kyiv and Washington and grants the U.S. special access to projects developing Ukraine's natural resources.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's president, during a news conference with Olaf Scholz, Germany's chancellor at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, Germany, on June 11, 2024. (Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Ukraine has not received all the weapons promised by the West, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sept. 2 during a press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof.
Western countries have largely allowed Ukraine to use their arms in the Kursk incursion, but the U.S. and the U.K. have maintained their restrictions on the use of long-range missiles like ATACMS or Storm Shadow to hit deep inside Russia.
"We need not only permission, but we also need (the actual weapons). We have not received everything we want to use," Zelensky said.
Permission to use certain long-range arms on Russian soil depends on the U.S., the U.K., France, and Germany, which have relevant drones and missiles, he added, adding that "he permission alone is not enough today."
Ukraine had an agreement that it would receive such weapons, and is "more positive" about the prospects of getting permission from its Western partners to carry out long-range strikes inside Russia, according to Zelensky.
Kyiv has long argued that restrictions on the use of long-range weapons are stifling its war effort, while Washington claimed that allowing Ukraine to hit deep into Russian territory with its weapons could escalate the situation.
Ukraine has dismissed these arguments and has ramped up pressure to lift the ban in recent weeks amid the ongoing incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast. The White House has not budged on its position, despite some U.S. politicians backing Kyiv’s demands.
Kateryna Denisova works as a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the NV media outlet for four years, covering mainly Ukrainian and international politics. Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. She also was a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.
Kateryna Denisova
