Oleksii Kuleba: Ukraine focused on winning, has no other thoughts

Russia’s war against Ukraine continues to stay on top of the agenda of global politics. Head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration Oleksii Kuleba told the Eastern Europe bureau of Report about the latest events in Ukraine, the situation in the Kyiv region, the state of the energy infrastructure, which was seriously damaged during the recent attacks.

- After a relative lull in October, Russia resumed massive air attacks on the capital and other Ukrainian cities. How much did the city and regional infrastructure suffer as a result of these strikes, what is the material damage? Were there human casualties again?

- On October 10-11 and on October 17-18, missile strikes continued from the air and from the territory of the Russian Federation against critical infrastructure facilities and residential areas of the region. Unfortunately, there were also casualties - one person died, 10 were injured, these are all civilians who have nothing to do with military operations. As for the destruction of residential infrastructure, 60 houses were damaged, mainly the private sector, eight of them were completely destroyed. For people, this was the only housing, now we are working to find where they would spend the winter. That’s because we have the hardest time ahead of us - the winter period.

Among other things, the Russian army continues to shell our critical infrastructure facilities, the goal is clear to the whole world. Now is the time that everyone can see and observe what is happening. It's no secret that the Russian army wants to destroy our energy system in order to leave us without electricity and, accordingly, without water and heat. And it will simply continue to destroy us with such methods, absolutely inhuman ones.

Nevertheless, I want to say that all the infrastructure that could have been quickly restored has been restored, and now repair work continues on objects that require more time. Unfortunately, this has led to power outages throughout Ukraine.

We are now making plans and schedules in order to balance the energy system so that people understand and plan their day with such rather serious difficulties in mind. All this confirms once again that the goal of the Russian Armed Forces is not the information theses they are talking about, but something completely different. They want to destroy us as a state, as a people, but they will not succeed, regardless of whether we have electricity or not. We will continue to destroy them and drive them out of our territory.

- Everyone knows that the main targets of these strikes are civilian facilities, including energy ones. How many such objects were damaged in the region? What operational steps are being taken to overcome the current situation of power outages in the region? What preparations for winter are being made?

- As for energy objects, I won't say the exact number, several objects were attacked quite seriously. There are destructions and damages, both of moderate severity and quite severe, which will require long-term repairs, and this may take up to a year. All that could be done in a month - these works have either already been completed or will be carried out as planned until mid-November.

I would like to say that all the power engineers and people who were involved in the aftermath of these attacks are heroes, because they worked despite the air raid alerts, the risks of new shelling, in order to restore electricity supply to consumers, to our people as soon as possible.

As for the heating season and the challenges that await us this winter, they are indeed very big. We understand that this whole season is one big challenge for us. We understand that due to military risks, due to the absolutely inadequate goals of the Russian army, we can get a hard winter, and people can find themselves without heat and electricity. We are preparing for this, we have plans that will allow us to somehow survive the winter season.

The most important thing we strive for is to save every life of our citizens. Based on this, specifically in the Kyiv region, we are deploying a network of 720 heating points that will operate throughout the territory. Basically, these are large administrative buildings that can accommodate a certain number of people - from 50 to 300. We are preparing these administrative buildings so that they are autonomous. This autonomy must withstand more than 24 hours. We are now talking about increasing autonomy to 72 hours. These heating points will have the necessary warm clothes, food, water and, of course, means of communication. Because one of the main problems that we are now facing is in places where the electricity goes out, after a while, we see communication problems.

- This time, Iranian kamikaze drones are used in the attacks. What measures are being taken against these drones? What should be the response to such participation of Iran in the aggression against Ukraine?

- Unfortunately, Iran, by transferring weapons to the Russian Federation, which is used against Ukraine by the Russian army, has put itself on a par with its war crimes. In my understanding, all the leaders of the countries that committed such war crimes - Russia, Belarus, which Iran has now joined, should be punished.

Why has Russia continued to carry out aggressive actions against neighboring countries - independent states - in Chechnya, the Caucasus, and other republics over the past 30 years? Because for these 30 years Russia hasn’t suffered any political and military responsibility. Now the same thing has come to Ukraine. This speaks of complete impunity. The world community must find a way to hold accountable those who allow themselves this.

As for Iranian drones on the territory of Ukraine, today we can say that we have a clear understanding of how to deal with them. Recent attacks have shown that we shoot down either 95% or 100% of these air targets. This is all due to the fact that we have adapted from the first attacks on Kyiv and the Kyiv region and now we understand the nature of these attacks better. Our air defense forces are constantly monitoring 24/7, assessing potential threats. This allows us to create additional defense forces where they are needed. I am sure that we will continue to increase our efforts and show our enemy that neither Iranian drones nor other weapons will help them.

- In general, when compared with the first days of the war, how well organized is the air defense of Kyiv? It is reported that the new air defense systems were transferred to Ukraine.

- I will not name specific figures, because all this leads to the fact that information is taken from sources, especially from official ones, compared and used against us. The targets that we spotted on the territory of the Kyiv region in the last attack were repulsed. We have such a good joke that announcements in the first days of the war that it was necessary to urgently leave the city, stock up on food, etc. were replaced by messages urging respected residents of Kyiv not to shoot drones from automatic weapons while in house. This is how our life changed. If in the first days of the war people were scared and did not know how their fate would unfold, now there is no fear, and people have adapted and are ready to stand until victory. We have no other thoughts, we are all focused on winning.

- At present, the possibility of attacks on Ukraine from the north, in the direction of Kyiv, from Belarus is being discussed. How realistic is this?

- We thought that Belarus was an independent state, but, unfortunately, on February 24, we saw that this independent country no longer exists. They completely gave their territory to the Russian army for use. A huge military formation entered the Kyiv region from the territory of Belarus. Having such a neighbor, we must be prepared for this. In this regard, immediately after we repelled the onslaught and liberated the territory of the Kyiv region in April, we moved on to strengthening the borders. This work continues every day. We will strengthen our territorial borders so that the enemy could not go further than the border, deep into the Kyiv region and thus into the city of Kyiv.

- In the first days of the war, many people left the Kyiv region. Enough time has passed. Do you have information about how many people returned?

- We can say that during the peak periods we recorded the departure of about a million people from the Kyiv region. The approximate population of the area before the war was 2.5 million people. Now 50% of those have returned. Perhaps people will leave further, as events develop. This applies mainly to women and children who find it difficult to live in such conditions. Such a development of events is possible, we understand this.

But last month we see, on the contrary, quite a strong inflow. People are returning either from abroad or from Western Ukraine home. Nobody wants to live in a house that is not their own, nobody wants to live outside their homeland. Now, when the country is in a difficult historical moment, we must do what our grandfathers and great-grandfathers did. Of course, people want to be here and support - now any help is very much needed. Everyone has their own front, and even the person who today is just sweeping the street plays a role. Therefore, I can sum it up by saying that if the standard of living deteriorates, if we are left without electricity and heating, of course, people will leave. But if the situation stabilizes, we expect an influx of our population back.