West cannot plan strategically in Russia's war against Ukraine - foreign policy expert Kraiev

Oleksandr Kraiev, an expert of the Ukrainian Prism Foreign Policy Council shared this opinion on the Espreso TV channel.

"The West understands that the preparation of the defence industry for wartime, which they have been doing for the last six months, is not yet complete. They cannot say clearly how and when it will be completed. Accordingly, the main problem we see in the statements of Western leaders is that they cannot plan strategically," he said.

Unfortunately, Western leaders still cannot be sure that industry and society are ready for such a long-term confrontation, Kraiev said.

"All this time, they continue to be influenced by the factor of China, which is not interested in the victory or defeat of the Russian Federation. China is interested in dragging out this process so that the West gets exhausted, spends its own resources, and at the same time becomes weaker and makes Russia weaker. After all, it can claim leadership in the pro-Chinese bloc," the expert added.

According to him, the West is still unable to answer Ukraine's key questions. That is why we are returning to the scenario again: "Ukraine must not lose".

"The West cannot say what Ukraine's victory should look like, how quickly they are ready to help us ensure it, what will happen to Russia in the future, and how to balance this new world order. Because of this uncertainty and inability to plan, the solution to this problem is to maintain a certain status quo. Unfortunately, we are again returning to the scenario where it is necessary that Ukraine does not lose. Because the status quo, despite all the problems, is understandable to Western politicians," he concluded.

• Russian opposition politician Mark Feygin explained why the West is postponing the supply of weapons to Ukraine.