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00:00Let's go live on the programme now to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital,
00:04pick up on some of those issues because we are joined now by Peter Zalmayev. He is the director
00:10of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative. Hello to you and thanks for joining us on France 24.
00:17How serious in your view were these strikes on Ukraine overnight?
00:23They're serious but they're no more serious than what we've seen over the past weeks and months
00:29and whatever Putin said in Kazakhstan obviously is pure nonsense when he claimed that these
00:36attacks were in response and retaliation for Ukraine's use of long-range attack missiles
00:42provided by America. Well, what were all these other barrages of missiles, all those attacks
00:49with hundreds of ballistic missiles and shot head drones over the past two and a half years?
00:56Has Putin really needed a pretext for any of this so it doesn't wash? Obviously, yes, I agree with
01:03the colleague in the studio that Vladimir Putin has stepped up his campaign of terrorising
01:08civilian population which once again has to bring home to our western allies a very simple message
01:15that Vladimir Putin has unleashed. It's not just a war between two armies that he has unleashed.
01:21He has been actively waging a terrorist war against the civilian population of Ukraine which
01:28smacks of some genocidal tactics. A lot of folks in Ukraine insist that this is a genocide against
01:34the Ukrainian people. We know that genocide is a very loaded term. It's a very technically
01:42specific term. I don't want to throw it around but it's just once again a demonstration that Vladimir
01:48Putin will pull out all stops in his absolute obsession to bring Ukraine to its knees. This is
01:54also a word of caution to the incoming Trump administration if they think that Putin will be
02:00happy with some territorial concessions. No, Putin's goal is annihilation of Ukraine as a
02:05sovereign state and so the Trump administration has to decide for itself if Ukraine's sovereignty
02:11is an issue larger than just Ukraine and therefore deserves of Ukraine's continued support.
02:18What I want to ask you about though is the Ukrainian response to these attacks today.
02:25Do you think we will see as a result more attacks on Russia potentially with American weaponry
02:31and thus more escalation from Russia? This cycle is going to get worse isn't it?
02:37The cycle is getting worse and the message in Ukraine is if you just go on
02:41just sort of go through chat rooms, public forums, Facebook and comments by experts and others,
02:50obviously the call is to continue to speak the language of strength of Putin.
02:57Otherwise if we were to buckle under this sort of pressure, if the U.S. were to let's say withdraw
03:04this permission to use long-range attack, this will send a message that Mike makes right.
03:12This is a very bad message. This is a message that will in the long run undercut world security
03:20and therefore let's not underestimate Putin's efforts in that respect. We already have these
03:27major YouTube personalities and bloggers in the U.S. such as Joe Rogan who used the F-word to
03:35address Ukrainians that President Zelensky said people you are leading us into World War III.
03:41Some of the members of the Trump team including his son, his eldest son and others have also
03:48willingly picked up this Kremlin's line that this is an unacceptable escalation. Well in my opinion
03:56in the Ukrainian's opinion the escalation and what's really dangerous is sending Putin a signal
04:02that his blackmail works. That is the real danger. Look you've spoken quite a bit there about Donald
04:11Trump who's returning to Washington, returning to power in January, the changes you suspect that may
04:17well bring. What about though from Europe, from European allies, what is it in your view that
04:23Ukraine needs from them now? Europe needs to wake up to the reality of Russia's threat. It
04:31needs to understand that Russia's war against Ukraine is Russia's war against Europe, against
04:37the entire Western world, against the world order, against some basic principles. It needs to step up
04:43its production of weapons including air defense weapons. Putin himself at that press conference
04:49boasted that Russia outstrips Europe in its production of weaponry including missiles
04:57to the tune of 10 times, 10 to the factor of 10 times, 10 times more than what Europe's been able
05:03to produce. Coupled with that is Russia's strengthening alliance with North Korea who's
05:09sending tens of thousands of troops to Russia supplying it with hundreds of weapons, not so
05:14precise and not as good as Western made, but still very much damaging and dangerous. So that
05:22is the reality that needs to sink in, that there's going to be no negotiation with Putin other
05:28through strength. Putin understands no other kind of language. Peter Zamiyev talking to us
05:33there live from Kiev in Ukraine. Thank you very much.