Excerpts from a July 7 interview of the former Ukrainian defense minister Oleksiy Reznikov to the Times (back-translating from UNIAN because the original source is behind a paywall):
"Russia's war against Ukraine will only end after Vladimir Putin dies or resigns, former Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told The Times.
He stressed that the conquest of Ukraine is a "personal obsession" of the Russian dictator, so the conflict will continue in one form or another as long as Putin remains in the Kremlin. According to Reznikov, even if a ceasefire is declared and buffer zones are created, Russia will continue to attack Ukraine using hybrid methods, as it did before 2022.
"[Putin] is afraid of Ukraine because we are a threat to his regime. If the Russian population sees that the democratic, liberal, European path is better than tyranny, then for the regime it becomes a question of survival. That is why I think that only after a change of leadership in Russia will we have a real chance to live in normal, peaceful coexistence with the Russians," he said.
According to Reznikov, Putin is trying to conquer Ukraine by using "salami tactics": cutting off small pieces to eventually eat up all of Ukraine.
"They started with Crimea - a piece of salami. Then Lugansk - a piece of salami. Then Donetsk - a piece of salami. Today they have occupied part of the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions. They will advance as long as you allow them to advance, seizing as much land as they can," the former minister explained.
Reznikov said that at the beginning of the Russian invasion, he believed that there was a certain limit to losses after which Putin would abandon his goals.
"I thought that if they lost 100,000 people, they would stop. During the Soviet war in Afghanistan, they withdrew their troops after losing 18,000. But I was naive," he admitted."
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