The West understands that Ukraine's arms race with Russia will be longer and more expensive than they had planned from the beginning.
Aleksey Arestovich, the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, spoke about this in a conversation with Russian lawyer and human rights activist Mark Feygin.
"The contours of American and Western aid have already been outlined - to make the Russian army here in a state where they would come to negotiate with us in a weak position. This is a less decisive goal than they set it two months ago, when Johnson, Austin, Blinken said, "our task is to defeat Russia's armed forces and make sure that Russia cannot threaten its neighbors," Arestovich said.
He explained that such a goal is less dangerous for the Putin regime but still favorable for Ukraine.
According to Arestovich, the West changed its goal for three reasons.
"Internal resistance in the West, which has rested on the top of its sanctions. It is very, very difficult to give up Russian gas. The second point is the understanding that they are betting on economic weapons sooner than on the battlefield. And the third is understanding that they cannot quickly provide us with the necessary flow of weapons to resist Russian attempts. They give us 100 howitzers and the Russians same time take 600. The race will be longer and more expensive, more expensive than they planned from the beginning," said Arestovich.
"And most important - the desire to avoid the trend of military escalation. However, I do not understand what to escalate. They have to look at those miserable Russian troops who proudly declare themselves the Taman Division, and two-thirds of them are reservists. They are wrong," Arestovich added.
