Vitaly Kim says Ukraine needs security guarantees

Vitaliy Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Administration, said that the country, due to war exhaustion, needs a peace agreement that prioritizes human life over territory.

He said this in an interview with The Independent.

The dialog was dedicated to a meeting of governors and mayors to discuss possible parameters of the front line with the Russian Federation. According to Kim, the issue of territories is still important today, but reality makes the situation more pragmatic.

''Territories are important, but people are more important, and the situation is such that we do not know what will happen tomorrow,'' he said. The head of the Mykolaiv region emphasized that the utopia of victory for him would be the restoration of Ukraine's 1991 borders, but on the condition that the residents live in safety and do not die. At the same time, Kim noted that the protracted war has led to a deep fatigue of the society.

''For me personally, the victory is our borders from 1991, where people are happy and do not die. But everyone is very tired. Therefore, for the Ukrainian people, I think victory is simply the end of the war and guarantees of security for the future, so that our children can have the life they had before the invasion,'' Kim said.

Vitaly Kim also emphasized that Ukraine is in a situation of acute time pressure. According to him, the country is exhausted primarily in the human dimension and that it should be easier and faster for the Russian economy to recover.

Kim emphasized that Ukraine's critical vulnerability is the lack of human capital, not technical equipment. He noted that the limited demographic resource and physical exhaustion of the nation make a long-term war of attrition (4-10 years) strategically impossible for the Ukrainian army.

Катерина Глушко