Ukraine needs air defense, MLRS, long-range artillery and NATO invitation

On December 11, his  interview for MSNBC was posted on the former president’s YouTube channel.

 "Putin does not understand the language of negotiations. Putin only understands the language of force. Therefore, the world, which has now created a pro-Ukrainian coalition, should create an anti-Putin coalition. We have a very positive example of this - the Ramstein Group of more than 60 nations that provides weapons, and not only speeches and statements, exerts pressure on Putin. And this pressure is quite effective," Poroshenko noted.

 "Please don't trust Putin. Because there are so many signed documents - on the withdrawal of his troops from Ukrainian land, on the release of all hostages, withdrawal of heavy artillery - none of this has happened. And the second point: do not be afraid of Putin. Both Ukrainians and the Ukrainian Armed Forces demonstrate this," Poroshenko emphasized.

 "We have the best negotiator, a great diplomat for negotiations with Putin - this is the Armed Forces of Ukraine. What can strengthen the position of the Armed Forces of Ukraine? These are weapons, these are sanctions, this is future NATO membership," Poroshenko believes.

“All Ukrainian soldiers are highly motivated because they protect their own state, their own soil, their own families, their own people. We have an increasing supply of weapons, but we need more weapons. Particularly, we need air defense to stop Russian dominance in the Ukrainian airspace. We need long-range artillery and MLRS because we need to stop Russian dominance in artillery numbers and have a security distance from where we can open fire against Russia,” Poroshenko explained.

“And the second position is sanctions and embargo…Immediately after we introduced this sanction and the cap for the oil prices [the price dropped]. Just 3 weeks ago that was USD 90 to 97 per barrel and today it is 76. This is how sanctions work. And this is just a first step to cut rush to Russia, the cash flow which the civilized World pays to the crazy dictator Putin and that is about USD 1 billion a day. Can you imagine these figures? And half of this figure Putin spent to kill Ukrainians, to kill democracy, to kill freedom. We should stop that,” he believes.

“And the third position, again, please, we should understand that without inviting Ukraine to NATO this war is impossible to stop, impossible to finish, impossible to win,” ex-president concluded.