To mark the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine, The Telegraph was given exclusive access with some of the most powerful figures in President Zelensky’s administration.
Today Francis Dearnley talks to Oleksiy Danilov, the overarching coordinator of the country’s war cabinet. A former veterinarian, he was the youngest ever mayor of Luhansk from 1994-1997, now annexed by Russia. Danilov is one of the country’s most senior security officials, and rarely gives interviews.
But if there’s any man in Kyiv whose job it is to hold the entire conflict in his head at all times – from the battlefront, to domestic political intrigue, to rallying international support – it’s him.
“Putin is a modern fascist.”
“Hitler’s Siamese twin.”
Why must it take a Ukrainian to speak these truths?
Brilliant interview.
Russia is evil.
Because for years … no, for decades, the West has not produced any leaders who are up to par to deal with this level of evil. Jellyfish and marshmallows are wholly unqualified as leaders and other high positions in such trying times.
Certainly there is no one with the calibre of Mr Danilov, who presented himself with great dignity and restraint, bearing in mind that he has lost family members to putler vermin.
It was a flawless performance, but for one thing : the Telegraph has influential readers in the UK establishment, Anglophiles in Germany and France (yes there are some) and increasingly in the US now that it runs a US edition. One of very few, if any, conservative news sources that offer unequivocal support for Ukraine. The DT offered him a platform and IMHO, he could have gone off piste:
Instead of saying : “we don’t need your troops, we need your military support”, he should have said :
“Your military support was already only a fraction of what we requested, but then last November, US Aid was halted indefinitely and now we have an advancing enemy, a shortage of long range fires, a chronic shortage of ammo and a chronic shortage of manpower. We are addressing the latter issue but we need your help. We are not asking you to send troops to the frontline; we’ll take care of that, but what we want is to secure our Black Sea coastline; without which we can’t survive.
Accordingly we request that you send three divisions of mechanized troops, with air support, to protect Mykolaiv and Odesa oblasts.
That will enable us to send more of our reserves to the frontline.”
It must be made crystal clear to putler that any further gains are now impossible and that occupation of Crimea and Donbas is untenable.
West is in the very difficult state of choosing between values or money. Choosing money, you choose failure. Money can never outweigh values. Values are the most expensive thing in the world. Human life, it’s dignity, rights and freedoms are the most valuable.
For many, after selling their soul to Mammon, it’s hard to abandon money.