The Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksi Reznikov, has warned that although Russia is preparing to launch a new offensive, they are ready to withstand the challenge and counterattack, as they demonstrated last year, when “Ukraine was not only able to stop the Russian Army, but also to defeat it”.

“Now the process of accumulating resources on both sides is underway. Each one is ready to take the initiative and we are waiting. We are ready for the Russian offensive and we are preparing a counteroffensive,” the Defense Minister said during an interview for ‘Forbes’ magazine.

“Our main objective in this war is to liberate all the temporarily occupied territories, free our people and bring the perpetrators to justice, before an international court. We believe that together with the entire civilized world we will be able to do it,” Reznikov confided.

To achieve his goal, Reznikov has defended the need for Ukraine’s Western partners to continue sending weapons and has highlighted how the increasing “transparency” and “openness” of Ukrainian institutions has led to “more confidence” and therefore larger arms shipments.

“The more they see our transparency and openness, the more they trust us. The more they trust us, the more weapons they give us (…). Nobody believed that David would beat Goliath, but it happened thanks to that stone in the slingshot. In our In any case, David will defeat Goliath with the help of our friends’ weapons,” he said.

However, Reznikov has acknowledged that there are debates and certain misgivings in parts of some of the societies of Ukraine’s allied countries about this increasing delivery of weapons given the possibility that it could be used incorrectly and therefore it is up to Kiev persuade otherwise.

The new arms requests by Ukraine come in parallel to the announcement by the president of the United States, Joe Biden, to deliver military aid worth 500 million dollars, as well as new sanctions against those who reinforce the Russian war machine, taking advantage of his Kiev pass this Monday.

To date, the United States has sent more than $30 billion worth of military and financial support to Ukraine, while also pressuring its NATO partners to step up arms shipments, including the long-awaited Leopard tanks. 2.