U.S. military aid has drawn Ukraine into war of attrition — diplomat

Diplomat Oleksandr Khara shared the information on Espreso TV.

"Let us recall that at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Americans did not want Ukraine to strike even Crimea with Western weapons. Only when Ukraine started using its own weapons and there was no World War III did it become acceptable. And, in fact, the substantial assistance provided to Ukraine by the American partners led us into the type of war we are now fighting — a war of attrition," he said.

According to Khara, this happened because the U.S. did not want to provide the means and capabilities that would have given Ukraine a significant advantage.

"First and foremost, it's the air forces and operational-tactical, or so-called long-range, i.e., long-range missiles. Providing us assistance has always been tied to restrictions on how we can use that assistance," the diplomat said.

He noted that now those restrictions are gone — no one is telling Ukraine that it cannot strike Russian oil refineries.

"Now Ukraine have destroyed over 40% of Russia's refining capacity there, which is, of course, the best kind of sanctions and the best way to bring about so-called negotiations with the Russian Federation — rather than Trump's talk about some sanctions and so on," Khara added.

In the diplomat's view, the same story will apply to the Tomahawk missiles.

"They would not be usable without the Americans' permission, and of course not only our military strategic calculations would be taken into account there, but also the unwillingness to escalate relations with Russia. And it may turn out that they will give us a certain number of Tomahawks, but we will not be able to use them because of the fear of escalation," he said.

Khara hopes that this will not happen and that Ukraine will be able to use them sovereignly.

"From the standpoint of target selection, these will be objective military targets, or those that qualify as such under international law. There is a small chance that Trump will try to restrict Ukrainian use of these Tomahawks if he provides them, because there are still significant doubts about that. That likelihood will remain," the diplomat concluded.