Ukraine says fear of escalation among allies is major problem

Reuters:  KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine's top diplomat said on Wednesday that the biggest problem faced by Kyiv as it battles Russia is that its allies are afraid of approving new policies to support Ukraine out of a fear of escalation.

The remark by Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba came a day after Russia's foreign minister said the West was "playing with fire" by considering allowing Kyiv to strike deep into Russia and warned of the risks of World War Three.

"Ever since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, the biggest problem Ukraine has been facing is the domination of the concept of escalation in the decision-making processes among our partners," Kuleba said.

More than 2-1/2 years since Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv is pushing the West to give it the long-range weapons - and the authorisation - to strike targets deep inside Russian territory. It also wants help shooting down incoming missiles.

Kuleba made the comment during a conversation with Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski that was broadcast live from Poland.

"The war is always about a lot of hardware: money, weapons, resources but the real problems are always here, in the heads," he said.

"Most of our partners are afraid of discussing the future of Russia... This is something that is very upsetting because if we do not speak about the future of the source of threat, then we cannot build strategy," he said.

Ukraine has relied heavily on the West to supply it with weapons and hardware and financial assistance to hold out against Russia and fight back against Moscow's troops.

Kyiv launched a major cross-border offensive into Russia's Kursk region on Aug. 6 in what Russian President Vladimir Putin has called a "massive provocation".

During the meeting with Kuleba, Poland's foreign minister Sikorski said that while Russian is using long-range weapons against Ukraine, allies should "let Ukraine fight with whatever it has, with whatever we have delivered them and let’s deliver them more."

He said that Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump's people have an idea on how to end the war. "Some of these people say the plan is to accelerate the end of the war by threatening Putin with the escalation," Sikorski said.

The foreign minister suggested using other incentives to stop the war. "Help us to persuade some of our the European allies to not just extend the loan on the basis of frozen Russian assets but let us confiscate the assets from the aggressor and give it to the victim of aggression," he said.

Russia's full-scale invasion has killed thousands of civilians, destroyed cities and forced millions of people from their homes.