Russia may use Victory Day as excuse to boost ‘impotent’ invasion effort: Ukraine’s envoy to UN | CBC News

While Russia was “desperate” to escalate the military situation, Kyslytsya told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton, a formal declaration would be “shenanigans.” He said it was clear that Russia was already at war with Ukraine, something that has been recognized by the international community.

International leaders have referred to the conflict — which began when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 — as a war, and the UN General Assembly has condemned Russia’s actions and called for the country to provide access to humanitarian aid. But the UN resolutions refer to an “aggression” or “offensive” rather than the formal term “war.”

Kyslytsya said the point of declaring war would be to give Russian President Vladimir Putin the ability to mobilize more military resources, after Russia has shown itself to be “impotent” in the conflict so far.

After about two and a half months of fighting, the military situation in Ukraine has shifted away from initial Russian attempts to capture major cities across the country to a more localized conflict in the south and east.

Kyslytsya called for more military and humanitarian aid to stop the conflict and its impact on the Ukrainian people.

“The longer our citizens stay under the occupation, the greater the tragedy is and the greater the toll among the civilians is.”

Fighting shifts south and east

Russia has said its focus is now on “liberating” the Donbas, a region in southeastern Ukraine in which Ukrainian and Russian-backed separatist forces have been fighting since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.

A senior U.S. defence official said recently that Russia was making only slow and incremental progress in the Donbas region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that serious peace negotiations would only begin once Russia has been pushed back from territory it has occupied since the start of the invasion.

But Kyslytsya said even Ukrainian victory in the military conflict would not end the threat from Putin.

“The military defeat … is more realistic than changing the whole pattern of Russian behaviour in the international arena,” he said, arguing that the existence of the Russian threat means countries around the world live under threat of “assault.”

Asked whether the UN could be effective in ending the conflict given Russia’s permanent member status on the Security Council, Ukraine’s envoy to the international body instead praised the actions of the General Assembly. He said that another “hope” for the UN was the numerous humanitarian agencies that have been “instrumental” in getting aid to civilians trapped in the conflict.

Canadian visit would be ‘the brightest spot’

As fighting has shifted away from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, some countries have returned their embassies to the city. Other leaders, such as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, have met with Zelensky.

But Canada has not yet announced when it will reopen its embassy, currently operating in neighbouring Poland. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has said it was “important” to move back to Kyiv.

Kyslytsya said he did not want to be “impolite,” given Canada’s contributions to Ukraine, and that the choice to reopen the embassy is up to Canadian security considerations.

But he also noted that “if the visit happens, it would be the right thing to do” and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would have “the brightest spot on the agenda of Ukrainian national politics or even the Ukrainian internal politics.”

You can watch full episodes of Rosemary Barton Live on CBC Gem, the CBC’s streaming service.