Over the past two years, the fear of Russia’s escalation has been a key factor that has consistently hindered the provision of necessary weapons and the adoption of important political decisions in support of Ukraine.

This was stated by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba on July 2 during his online participation in the Economist's panel discussion "Spiralling through the conflicts in search of opportunities" in Athens, Greece.

"Over these two and a half years, nothing has harmed our common cause more than the fear of escalation. We heard it every time we called for a new type of weapon that Ukraine desperately needed to protect its people and critical infrastructure. We heard it every time we had to make an important decision: from granting EU candidate status to Ukraine to other major political steps," the Minister said. 

Dmytro Kuleba emphasized that in the end, all decisions were made, and none of them led to escalation. He reminded that, firstly, Russia itself is constantly escalating the situation and does so regardless of any decisions, and secondly, "its escalation pockets are already empty."

"My request today is to believe in Ukraine's ability to win and finally abandon the fear of escalation. It is Putin who should be afraid of us. It is he who should try to read our minds. It is he who should be looking for ways to end his aggression. Not the other way around," the Minister emphasized.

In this context, Ukraine's Foreign Minister named three decisions that would help Ukraine and its allies to improve the battlefield situation.

"Firstly, providing Ukraine with more Patriots and other air defense systems and relevant missiles to throw Russia out of the Ukrainian sky. Secondly, giving Ukraine the ability to destroy Russian air terror tools, its bombers, before they even get close to Ukraine's borders - at airfields in Russia and in its skies. And thirdly, a sufficient and stable supply of artillery ammunition to give Ukrainian ground forces an advantage," the Minister said.