Kyiv MP tells Scots: We believe we will win. Keep your faith in Team Ukraine
A Ukrainian politician turned civilian resistance fighter yesterday called for the West to keep faith in her country’s fight against Russia.
Kira Rudyk – who became a global symbol of Ukrainian defiance after she was pictured with an AK-47 rifle in the days after the invasion – was in Dundee to address the annual conference of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
The MP was one of thousands of Ukrainians to collect a gun to protect herself and her country at the start of the war.
At the conference, Rudyk said: “No one believed that we would stand for more than two or three weeks. Then nobody believed that we would get candidacy for the European Union. Then nobody believed we would get heavy weapons.
“Nobody believed that we were capable of counter-attacks or taking our city of Kherson back. Nobody believed we would get Patriot missiles or tanks.
“We are at the point where nobody believes that we will get fighter jets, that we will kick Russia out of the United Nations, that we will use $500 billion of Russian money sitting in
democratic countries to rebuild our country. Nobody believes there will be a tribunal for Putin and his circle. Nobody believes there will be a victory parade in the streets of Kyiv.
“But you know what is the most important? We believe that. And once you do, it gets easier to get through every day, pushing forward, every single person at the front, at the back, on the democratic front, on the international front, on the humanitarian front, on the economic front.
“Everywhere, Team Ukraine together.” Rudyk said war with Russia would continue for years and rape was being used by Vladimir Putin’s troops as a weapon of war – the main reason she got the gun that made her famous around the world.
She said: “I knew what would happen if Russian soldiers got to Kyiv. I want to kill them. I want to prosecute them. We have a strategy. Our strategy is to fight.”
Last year, at a meeting with Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the US House of Representatives in Washington, Rudyk spoke about publicly supporting the confiscation of Russian assets.
Pelosi also said Russia should be recognised as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Bakhmut: Russia faces more losses
Russian forces have made progress in the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut but their attack will be hard to sustain without further harsh losses, UK military officials say.
Bakhmut is a key target of Moscow’s campaign in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin-controlled Wagner Group has captured most of eastern Bakhmut, the UK Ministry of Defence said.
But it added it will be highly challenging for Wagner forces to advance because Ukraine has destroyed key bridges.