A former Ukrainian diplomat has rejected the notion that Russia’s airstrikes on Poltava are a retaliation to Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk.
Olexander Scherba, who formerly served as Ukraine’s ambassador to Austria, told DW that there was no justification for Russia’s strikes on Poltava.
“You know, wherever someone says something like this, I’m speechless because Ukraine has been invaded, killed, raped, tortured, beheaded, castrated for two and a half years. And now, in the third year of this war, we finally brought the war to Russian territory. And all of a sudden, people in the West say, well, this is the retaliation for what you did, for what we did,” he said.
Scherba said the Poltava attack on a Ukrainian hospital was an example of how Moscow had a free rein to attack wherever it wants inside Ukraine, while Kyiv is restrained by Western conditions concerning the use of Western weapons in attacking deep inside Russia.
“But also, finally, we cannot fight this war with one of our hands bound behind our back. We have to strike their airfields,” he added.
“We have to strike their military bases. It cannot go on like this. It’s just insane. Insane that Russia can reach wherever they want. And we can only shoot within a 50 kilometer radius from our border.”