Danilov denies Ukraine's involvement in Nord Stream blasts
That’s according to the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, who spoke in an interview with Welt, Ukrinform reports.
"Do we have anything to do with it? Of course not," said Danilov, adding that it was Russia that was interested in the destruction of its gas pipe, and that at that time Russia had many ships of its own roaming that area. Sooner or later, the world will find out what happened while many assumptions remain in place, the politician noted.
Commenting on the hesitation of the German government to provide Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles, allegedly due to fears that Ukraine will be firing them at Russia’s territory, Danilov noted that Ukraine uses weapons of its own production to strike targets in Russia. Kyiv, he emphasized, respects its commitment to its Western partners not to use their weapons for this purpose and keeps its promises. Forbidding Ukraine to use its own weapons for strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation "would be really strange."
Therefore, there is no mistrust of Ukraine, but the fact is that until now "some are afraid" of Russia, of irritating it, which, from the Ukrainian point of view, is an absolutely false and dangerous position, said the NSDC secretary. He recalled that at one time everyone was also afraid of Hitler.
"If you are afraid, you will definitely lose," the politician warned.
Danilov also considers the suggestion that Putin controls everything to be a mistake on the part of the West. The very phenomenon of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's emergence suggests that this is completely untrue. From now on, processes in the Russian Federation will take place spontaneously, fragmentarily, and in a way that no one expects, which is only a matter of time, predicts Danilov. Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus now needs to do a “very wide split” so as not to repeat the fate of Yevgeny Prigozhin, he added.
The situation at the front is definitely not a stalemate, Danilov is convinced. He called Russia’s air superiority the most painful issue. He also noted that Kyiv has not publicly seen any criticism from Western partners regarding the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, although there are certain assumptions in the media in this regard.
The secretary of the National Security and Defense Council assured journalists that the Ukrainian military death toll, cited by some mass media, does not correspond to reality. According to him, the people who wrote those reports have no accurate information.
Danilov also expressed his vision regarding the chances that the Kremlin will use nuclear weapons, which worries the West quite a bit.
"Using nuclear weapons is the last thing Putin can do. After that, there will be no Putin, no Russia, nothing at all," the politician said.
According to him, if the Russian president believes that the use of tactical nuclear weapons will help him achieve success in Ukraine, he is deeply mistaken: Ukrainians will defend their land even more strongly and advance until the last Russian soldier leaves the territory of Ukraine.
All threats about "turning someone into radioactive ash" only show what kind of crazy people we are dealing with, added Oleksiy Danilov.
As reported, information appeared in the German media that the Prosecutor General of Germany, who is investigating the fact that three out of four branches of Nord Stream gas pipelines were blown up at the end of September 2022, is convinced that Ukrainians were behind the attack. The federal government does not comment on the course of the inquiry.
