It is important for Ukraine to end the war before winter to prevent the Russians from settling permanently in the country, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriï Yermak, said in an interview published on Tuesday.
"It's very important for us not to go into the winter. After winter, when the Russians will have had more time to gain a foothold, it will definitely be more difficult. They are dragging us there. It's very important for us not to give them that opportunity," Yermak told Novoie Vremia magazine.
While stating that the weapons provided by the Western allies were insufficient, he said he was counting on American military aid facilitated by the 1941 Lend Lease Act, reactivated by U.S. President Joe Biden to support Ukraine.
The Act was a programme created by the U.S. that enabled Washington to provide wartime aid and support to the Allied nations during World War II. Reactivated by Biden in May, it is due to come into full operation in August.
"Our goal is victory, we don't envisage any other," said Yermak, stressing that ongoing negotiations with Russia only concerned the unblocking of ports to export Ukrainian cereals immobilized there by the conflict, and not how to end the conflict for example.
"These negotiations are taking place at the military and Foreign Ministry level, and only with the mediation of the UN," he said. "I communicate with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. I do not communicate with the Russians," he stressed.
