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Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto believes Ukraine has already achieved victory in the war against Russia, if you assess the situation against the expectations at the start of the full-scale invasion.
He said this in an interview with Ansa on the sidelines of a meeting in London with his counterparts from the United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada, UATV English writes.
The Italian minister noted that at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, many expected Moscow would be able to seize Kyiv within a few days.
“Four years ago, everyone thought Russia would reach Kyiv within a week,” he noted, also recalling that even the US was preparing for the possibility of evacuating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
However, he stressed that Russia is now “stuck at the front line” and suffering significant losses. In particular, he noted that Moscow loses about 30,000 troops a month — killed and wounded.
In this context, he highlighted Ukraine’s success in using drones to fight Russian aggression.
“Ukraine still exists; it’s strong, and with each passing day it makes the war harder for Vladimir Putin,” he emphasized.
Crosetto also added that the war will end “when Russia stops bombing Ukraine for at least 24 or 48 hours, which it hasn’t done for even a single day since 2022.”
At the end of June, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russian oil refining and noted that the US president had acknowledged this. Rutte also does not believe Ukraine should hold back its strikes on Russian territory for the sake of possible “peace talks,” and stressed that it was Moscow that started the war.
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