Head of the Dutch MoD: I don't think the war ends in 2025

Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans believes that the war in Ukraine will not end in 2024 and called for a vision of long-term support for Ukraine.

He said this in an interview with LRT.

When asked about the possible timing of the end of the war, Brekelmans said that he ‘does not think the war will end this year, and he does not think it will end next year’. He also stressed that the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine is ‘very difficult’.

‘This means that we have to do more, but we also have to not raise our expectations too high, because sometimes people think that the Russian invasion was originally a sprint that turned into a marathon, but it is actually a 42-kilometre sprint,’ he said.

According to the head of the Dutch Defence Ministry, this means continuing to support Ukraine while taking a long-term perspective, so that the people of Europe are ready to support Ukraine for a longer period of time and do not have wrong expectations.

Brekelmans also believes that Russia is ‘certainly powerful’ and capable of waging a high-intensity war ‘for a very long time’.

‘Russia is a numbers game, and it is very difficult for Ukraine to defend itself against it, so we have to take the Russian threat very seriously, both on the battlefield and, of course, remembering that it is a nuclear power,’ the minister said.

Author - Dmitriy Levchenko, 17/09/2024