Russia poses ‘danger’ to The West warns Inna Sovsun
Vladimir Putin will roll his tanks into Poland and the Baltic States if the West does not act now to give Volodymyr Zelensky the weapons he needs to stop him, a former Ukrainian government minister has warned.
And Inna Sovsun compared her country’s stand with Britain’s against Adolf Hitler in 1939, as well as emphasising that without US military aid, the fight was hopeless.
Speaking via videolink from Kyiv the day before the second anniversary of Putin’s invasion, Ms Sovsun told Express.co.uk the situation was much the same as it was two years ago.
She explained: “I think what people should think about is to try and remember their own feelings on February 24, 2022 and how they felt in that moment.
“And the general feeling among the absolute majority of the world was the general injustice that was being done to the Ukrainian people.
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Vladimir Putin will not stop at Ukraine, warned Inna Sovsun (Image: GETTY/Express)
“And that injustice is not gone – nothing has changed and that is why the response should stay the same. People should feel outraged about this. It is still a danger to the world order.”
Putin’s ambitions represented a danger to countries, including Britain, which were not “directly affected” by the war, Ms Sovsun, an MP in Ukraine’s Parliament, stressed.
She explained: “But they are affected by Putin, who is undermining democracies all over the Western world.
“So even if he is not firing missiles into your territory, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to destroy you and people should remember that.”
“We’re doing the fighting for the rest of the world as well and the world should remember the level of danger that they’re in.”
Putin’s fight was against “the ideas and values that we all share”, said Ms Sovsun, who served as Ukraine’s deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine from 2014 to 2016.
Volodymyr Zelensky pictured with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today (Image: Getty)
She said: “We do have our differences, but still there are some basic things that we all believe in, for example democracy, rights and the right respect for human dignity. His regime doesn’t and he wants to undermine that.
“It’s not just that he wants to kill Ukrainians, but he wants to destroy the world as it is. It’s the whole world as it is organised that he wants to undermine and I think that people are losing the understanding of this.”
Ms Sovsun also shared the concerns of Mr Zelensky, Ukraine’s President, at the ongoing wrangling in the United States over funding for military aid to Ukraine, with Donald Trump’s Republicans noticeably reluctant.
She said: “Literally our lives depend on it. We would not be able to fight back if we don’t have military support from the United States, it is as clear as day.
Donald Trump’s Republicans are reluctant to continue funding Ukraine’s military operation (Image: Getty)
Ukrainians hold a 30-metre long Ukrainian flag in Brussels (Image: Getty)
“It’s just like it was in World War 2: the UK wouldn’t be able to fight without military support from the United States. It’s actually very similar to that.
“Even until then, delays in providing military support to Ukraine right now are already having an effect on the front line.
“The truth, is that over the last half a year, while the Americans have been debating whether to send military aid to Ukraine, Russians have been building their industrial capabilities.”
Asked what needed to happen now, she said: “We have to continue working with the International Community to explain the danger that the whole international order is under.
“We have to make sure that Ukrainian voices are being heard, that our opposition is being heard, and that the West realises that you are in danger because of Putin.”
Given Putin himself famously described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest catastrophe of the 20th century”, Ms Sovsun warned that Russia’s territorial ambitions did not not stop at Ukraine.
Ukrainian soldiers on the front line (Image: Getty)
“If Putin wins, he will proceed into the Baltics. He will proceed into Poland and what happens next? NATO’s Article 5 is supposed to be activated and then there are two ways out of this.
“Firstly it is activated, and then all the soldiers of NATO countries will have to fight against Russians.
“Or it is not activated, which basically means dismantling of the whole world order, and then you will have to invest in your own military capabilities, because NATO will not be protecting you anymore if an individual member state.
“Putin will undermine your elections whenever they come. He will do anything because he know that there is nobody to stop him.
“The only people who are stopping Putin are our Ukrainian soldiers on the front line and I think the world needs to understand..
“He hates Ukrainians, but he hates so much more than Ukrainians. He hates the principles that your livelihoods are based on.
“They are operating all over the globe, they have been operating in the UK as you very well know for many years.
“I think people need to be reminded that their lives are in danger.”
