Olha Stefanishyna: Does Ukraine's Russia offensive make sense?
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2024
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stephen Sackur speaks to one of Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Ministers, Olha Stefanishyna. Kyiv’s military offensive inside Russia has shifted the dynamic in what looked like a war of attrition tilting in Moscow’s favour. But does this dramatic gambit make strategic sense, or is it an act of desperation?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Hard Talk from the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today in this interview |
| 0:06.3 | recorded on the 19th of August as an important strategic task within the Ukrainian government. |
| 0:13.2 | One of her country's deputy prime ministers, Olga Stefanaaschina, is handling the twin bids for |
| 0:18.8 | membership of NATO and the European Union. |
| 0:22.2 | For Ukraine, such integration is seen as the key to a secure, democratic, prosperous future. |
| 0:29.2 | It is fundamentally what the war with Russia is all about. |
| 0:32.3 | The West, led by the US, showers Ukraine with warm words and vague pledges, but there is no doubt that the |
| 0:39.7 | road to actual membership of both NATO and the EU will be long and difficult. So much hangs on the |
| 0:46.9 | outcome of the war with Russia. In the last couple of weeks, the narrative has shifted dramatically. |
| 0:53.6 | Ukrainian forces have punched a hole |
| 0:55.6 | through the Russian border in the Kursk region and are continuing to take territory in a move |
| 1:01.3 | which appears to have stunned and embarrassed the Kremlin. President Zelensky talks of creating |
| 1:07.6 | a buffer zone inside Russia. It is a daring move, but does it smack of desperation? |
| 1:14.7 | Well, Deputy Prime Minister, Olga Stefana Sheena, joins me now on the line from Kiev. |
| 1:20.1 | Welcome to Hard Talk. |
| 1:22.2 | Greetings from Kiev, Stephen. |
| 1:23.9 | Madam Deputy Prime Minister, you're a senior member of the Ukrainian government. Tell me, when did you first know of the plan to launch a major Ukrainian offensive inside Russian territory? |
| 1:38.5 | As long as I'm a member of the government, I'm not a military person. So, of course, this is a highly sensitive information, |
| 1:45.7 | and there was an extremely small group of people engaged into this process, but no secret, |
| 1:54.4 | that it is not a decision which should really focus out our attention from the major military needs from our partners. |
| 2:04.8 | This is what I do on a daily basis, working with the Allies to make sure that we have no necessary decisions in the other military for that enables us to defend ourselves. |
| 2:15.0 | Talking of those allies and the implications of what is happening right now |
... |
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