"Following Ukraine's resilience in the initial months of the invasion, we indeed saw we had maximum effectiveness," Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview with Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
“Russia was not prepared to engage in war with us, its sole plan at the time being to conduct a blitzkrieg, which failed miserably," he added.
Podolyak told Gazeta Wyborcza that Russia lacked a fortified defensive line and faced low morale among its troops at the start of the war.
"Ukraine had the potential to cripple the Russian army then," he stated. "However, the delivery of weapons was painfully sluggish."
He added that many types of weapons were not even being considered by his country's Western partners who he said feared that supplying arms to Kyiv would provoke Russia into escalation.
“We missed that moment," Podolyak told the Polish newspaper.
He argued that Europe at the time was "unwilling to acknowledge the existential threat" posed by Russia.
In his opinion, there was reluctance to allow a scenario where Russia faced defeat or internal upheaval; a belief was common that a compromise could halt the conflict, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
"Those illusions have now been shattered," Podolyak said. "Sadly, Ukrainian blood had to be shed to dispel them."
When asked about escalating tensions on the Polish-Ukrainians border generated by farmers' protests, Podolyak expressed confidence in finding a resolution.
Polish farmers have blocked the country's border with Ukraine and disrupted traffic nationwide in an intensifying protest against what they say are unfair European Union policies leading to an influx of cheap produce from Ukraine.
"We have quite warm relations with our Polish partners,” Podolyak said.
“We are close neighbors; Poland is fundamentally important to us, providing strong support at the international level, and I am convinced that we will overcome the current border challenges together,” he added, as quoted by the PAP news agency.
(mo/gs)
Source: PAP