Kremlin says goal to ‘demilitarize’ Ukraine has largely been achieved

The Kremlin claimed on Sunday that Russia’s goal to “demilitarize” Ukraine has mostly been achieved as Kyiv uses fewer and fewer of its own weapons, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with RT.

Peskov said Russia’s military has largely knocked out Ukraine’s domestically produced weapon systems, forcing the country to rely on Western arms.

“Ukraine was highly militarized when [the conflict] began. And, as [President Vladimir] Putin said yesterday, one of the goals was the demilitarization of Ukraine. De facto this goal has been achieved,” Peskov said.

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He added that Ukraine has been “using its own weapons less and less,” and has gradually switched to weapons supplied by Western countries, mainly US and NATO members.

The Kremlin spokesman argued that the military aid to Kyiv makes the Western countries “parties to the conflict” and makes the situation in Europe “more tense and unpredictable.” He added that this motivated Moscow to take “more decisive measures to ensure the safety of the people in Donbass and the safety of the Russian Federation.”

“In fact, the special military operation against Ukraine, against the Kiev regime, was launched to ensure the safety of the people of Donbass. This is correct. Now it is practically a war between Moscow and the collective West,” Peskov said.

Putin had said last week that Moscow may have to impose a “sanitary zone” in Ukraine to prevent Kyiv from attacking Russia. Peskov detailed that the size of that “sanitary zone” will depend on the range of the weapons supplied to Ukraine by the West.

“This depends on what types of arms Ukraine has. The higher the combat characteristics of arms in Ukraine are the longer this distance should be. The main goal is clear: to make sure they do not reach the Russian citizens with those arms,” he said.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was met with significant resistance from Ukrainian forces initially equipped with the readily available Soviet-era weaponry and a limited supply of Western armaments, such as Javelin anti-tank missiles. However, as the conflict escalated, Ukraine received substantial military aid from its Western allies, dramatically altering the dynamics of the war. The military aid included ammunition, artillery, armored vehicles, rocket launchers, tanks, and air defense systems and missiles.

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