“Russia asked for rockets to cover our debts from gas” – Kuleba about Putin’s letter and the previous policy of Ukraine

On September 7, during a video meeting with journalists of Central Asia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, answered the question of a Kun.uz reporter, and in particular mentioned the shortcomings of the previous leaders of Ukraine.

- Most of us, the residents of Central Asia, are deeply saddened to see what is happening in Ukraine, people and children are dying. What do you think could have been done to change the current state of events if you could go back in time, let’s say 10 years?

- 10 years? So it would be 2012. We hosted the European Championship back then... At that time, the policy of Ukraine towards Russia was similar to the policy of your countries towards the RF now. At first glance, there was some constructiveness in the relationship, but it was in 2012 that Russia launched the first major economic war against Ukraine. There was no plan about cooperation with NATO back then, there was no agreement on collaboration with the European Union, but the economic war started by Russia was looming. Because for Russia, the economy is a means of coercion, a political lever.

Of course, we would like to avoid such things, but, you know, we recently found Putin’s letter in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The letter was written before 2010. At that time, Putin was the president, and in his letter to the then-president of Ukraine, he wrote: “if you don’t stop doing such and such things, the history of Ukraine from the Soviet times will have to be reviewed.”

That is, long before the start of the war, Putin was firm in his views that Ukraine was created artificially.

He seems to have always believed this and used his presidency to implement this scenario – a plan to restore Russia’s imperial “greatness”. How can this be achieved and at whose expense? Only at your and at our expense!

If I could go back in time, as you proposed, I would rather return to 1991 and I would invest heavily in the defense of my country knowing that Putin had such thoughts as to attack Ukraine.

It was only when the war started that some truths dawned on us: the number of tanks we had in 1991 vs. the number of tanks we have now...unbelievable... Let alone the rockets...

Currently, the Russians are shelling Ukrainian cities every day. We had missiles of this type. But we gave them to the Russians... They always knew what they were up to.

At one time, we had a huge debt from gas. Do you know how Russia proposed to close the debt? With missiles... And unfortunately, our government at that time, which was not very wise and which believed that “there will be no war”, gave away the missiles: “It’s awesome, we don’t have to pay, we will just give them the missiles that no one needs...” Such were their thoughts.

It was all part of the plan.

Therefore, I would do only one thing: I would not disarm my country. I would have always been ready without believing in “eternal peace”.

We did not believe that there would be a war. I understand what is happening around the world, as I am a politician, but even in my wildest dreams, I could not imagine such a large-scale war.

That’s why I ask you to always be alert, if you think “this will not happen to us”... believe me, anything can happen.