Welcome to Hard Talk from the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker.

History and geography combined to ensure that my guest in this interview recorded on August

the 28th is hugely invested in the outcome of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Andris Spruz is Minister of Defence in the Baltic state of Latvia, which shares a border

with Russia and was ruled from Moscow from the end of the Second World War until 1991. In today's

independent Latvia, a proud member state of both NATO and the EU, there is a deep well of mistrust and suspicion

when it comes to Russia and its ruler, former KGB man, Vladimir Putin, which is why Latvia,

along with its Baltic neighbours, Estonia and Lithuania, is constantly exhorting its Western

partners to do more to help Kiev resist Russia's

war machine. The conflict is in its third year. Russia is grinding out a slow advance in eastern Ukraine

and continues to launch missile strikes across Ukrainian territory. But in recent weeks, Kiev has tried to

change the dynamic of the war by launching an audacious push into Russian territory in the Kursk region.

President Zelensky's gamble is designed to show that Ukraine still has the capacity to outsmart

the Kremlin and win. But for that to be true,

he needs much greater levels of backing from his Western allies. Will he get what he wants?

Well, Andrew Spruz joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you for having me.

It is a pleasure to have you. Now, you are defense minister

in a Baltic nation, which is one of Ukraine's strongest supporters inside the EU and NATO. So what do

you make of Ukraine's risky gambit, this offensive inside Russian territory?

I was just recently in Ukraine.

And what I see in Ukraine, it's a resolve, it's a determination, it's a resilience, it's a

willingness also to take initiative.

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