ISTANBUL

A former Ukrainian presidential adviser accused the West of not providing the military support it promised to Kyiv, which he said led to the continuation of the war.

“The real responsibility lies with those who promised us, Ukraine, real support for waging a real, big war and did not provide it,” Oleksii Arestovych said on Telegram late Sunday.

Expressing that Kyiv “broke” Russia’s army and initial “invasion plan” at the start of the Russia-Ukraine war with minimal help from the West, Arestovych said that Ukraine’s “victory” could have been cemented with the "Istanbul Agreements," referring to peace talks conducted in the Turkish metropolis in late March 2022.

The lives of a “couple of hundred thousand people” could have been saved with the agreement, he said.

“And then another war began. And we could not win this other war without aircraft and long-range missiles and five times more supplies for the Ground Forces. None of this happened. We paid a huge price for this,” he further said.

Arestovych went on to define this as “half the problem,” claiming that the new peace agreement the West will try to impose on Kyiv will be to cede Ukraine’s four annexed regions.

“So, the situation needs to be described as it is. We are in a … deeply unsatisfactory position. But this position gives us the opportunity for strong counterplay,” he concluded.