"They wanted collapse, but instead they got consolidated power and people in Ukraine" - Vadim Trukhan from Kyiv

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- Let us start the interview with the well-known personnel changes in Kyiv. Aleksey Arestovich, popular in Azerbaijan, and the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Kirill Timoshenko, have left their posts. It was said about the upcoming resignations of the heads of the district administrations of Sumy, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson regions. Are they right in Moscow, where they talk about the collapse of Zelensky's power?

- Aleksey Arestovich was an adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine outside the state. He was not a civil servant and did not receive a salary from the state. Talking about the “collapse of power from within” in connection with the dismissal of a freelance adviser is a sham. And the reasons for his dismissal are well known. He made a serious gaffe during one of his many interviews. As a responsible person, he did not make excuses, but wrote a letter of resignation.

The question arises. Why did the Russian propagandist make a mountain out of a molehill? The answer is very simple. They dream of the collapse of Ukraine from within. But it is real. The Ukrainian people are united as never before. By the way, recently there were published data of the latest public opinion poll in Ukraine. 86% of Ukrainians are in favor of joining NATO and 87% are for joining the EU. This is one of the results of Russia's war against Ukraine. They wanted to push NATO aside, but they got the opposite result. In the coming months, Sweden and Finland will become members of NATO, and Ukraine is moving full steam ahead to the same place. Similarly, with the so-called "collapse of power in Ukraine." They wanted collapse, but they got consolidated power in Ukraine and the people, whose only desire is to expel the Russian occupiers from their land.

The Ukrainian society was excited by the information that during the New Year period one of the Deputy Prosecutor General allowed himself a luxurious holiday in Spain. The President immediately reacted by signing an appropriate decree, according to which civil servants and other representatives of the state are allowed to travel abroad exclusively on business trips. It was the Deputy Prosecutor General who had to write a letter of resignation yesterday.

Rumors about the dismissal of Kirill Timoshenko have been around for a long time. And he himself is to blame for this. Somewhat "carried away" by his closeness to the president and began to allow himself some things that are unacceptable for a civil servant, especially during the war. The fact of using an expensive car for personal purposes, which obviously did not belong to him personally, apparently became the last straw and the reason for the loss of the President's confidence. Nevertheless, his dismissal should be viewed solely as an example of the cleansing of the head of state's team, and not as a sign of some kind of systemic problem. In his place will be appointed another person with a clean reputation and good managerial experience.

- Don't you think that those who say that the West does not need the defeat of Russia are right, it needs a constant smoldering war to keep the Russian Federation in a weak state. Therefore, they do not give Ukraine all the weapons necessary for victory, and watch how the Ukrainian people die. Therefore, they offer Kyiv to agree to the surrender of the eastern territories so that the tension with the Russian Federation never ends. On the example of the “Leopard” and “Abrams” tanks, which are not enough for the victory of the “Hymars” artillery systems, can this be argued?

  - This is only partly true. The position of the West is changing. And drastically. In the first days of the war, almost no one believed that Ukraine would survive. The weapons that we received could be needed, perhaps, for guerrilla warfare. Our partners were sincerely afraid that if they supplied us with what we needed, first, air defense/missile defense systems, armored vehicles, and artillery, all this would be in the hands of the enemy. As it happened, by the way, in Afghanistan, where a huge amount of modern weapons ended up in the hands of the Taliban.

But the armament of the Ukrainian forces, unexpectedly for our Western partners, as well as the territorial defense units, which were formed "from the wheels" in the first days after the invasion, thanks to the dedication and ingenuity of our people, inflicted a number of painful defeats on the vaunted "second in the world" army of Russia.

We did not allow the Rashists to capture Kyiv, Kharkov, and other big cities. And very quickly they forced the Russian invaders to flee from the Kyiv, Sumy, and Chernihiv regions. It absolutely changed the attitude of the West towards the war. We began to receive artillery, Multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) and armored vehicles. And after a unique summer counter-offensive, because of which we managed to expel the Rashists from the Kharkiv region, it became obvious to the West that Ukraine would not lose in this war.

The only problem is that the West for quite a long time could not realize that the victory of Ukraine is the defeat of Russia. Only after the fall of the Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to liberate Kherson, the only regional center that the Russians managed to capture at the beginning of the war, did the West finally understand that Ukraine's victory was inevitable.

It seems to me that the West has a premonition of victory. They realized that as a result of this war, it is quite possible to get a demilitarized Russia. Ukraine has little left - to convince the West that Russia should be divided into several nation-states. In the form in which it exists now, it would always remain a threat to Ukraine, Europe, and the world. Therefore, it is interested in the entire democratic world to support the initiatives of representatives of the peoples enslaved by Moscow and help them gain independence. The talk is about such peoples as Chechens, Tatars, Bashkirs, Dagestanis, Ingush, and many others. By the way, the European Parliament scheduled for January 31, in Brussels a presentation of one of the coordinating bodies created by representatives of the peoples enslaved by Moscow.

- For the first time, an African country sent Soviet tanks to Ukraine. Morocco sent 20 T-72B tanks. This opens a new opportunity for Ukraine. “Abrams” tanks are expensive and difficult to operate. And there are thousands of Soviet weapons in Africa and Asia, for various purposes. Is it possible to say that the first supply from Africa to the Ukrainian army gives hope for an almost endless wave of such weapons for Kyiv, which can become an alternative to arms supplies from Europeans and Americans? Including military aviation, which the Ukrainian army lacks. Ukraine can buy weapons in Africa and Asia at low prices, maybe the owners do not mind getting rid of Soviet weapons in order to update the warehouses.

- The fact that Morocco supplied Ukraine with 20 Soviet-made T72 tanks, which were modernized in the Czech Republic, is an undoubted positive. This is evidence that the Rammstein group is working. However, this is an intermediate result. Ukraine needs modern high-tech weapons. The talk is about Leopard 2, Leclerc, Abrams, Challenger 2 tanks, F-16 aircraft and European counterparts, long-range combat UAVs, ATACMS missiles and similar ones from other manufacturers, and so on. I am sure that more and more such weapons will be delivered to Ukraine every month.

At the same time, Ukraine is also working on establishing its own production, including jointly with our partners, and modern military equipment and ammunition.

Ukraine appreciates the fact that Azerbaijan provides a significant amount of humanitarian equipment, especially energy equipment. Nevertheless, we hope that soon, despite Russia's threats, our Azerbaijani friends will supply us with weapons, which are in abundance in the Azerbaijani army. Only by working together can we emerge victorious.