Slovak expert: Long-term conflict awaits us in Ukraine

"Currently, all the indicators show that the war is here to stay. This is just another phase in the Russia-Ukraine confrontation,” Slovak political scientist Josef Hrabina said in an interview.

"Therefore we can also say it’s another phase in the Russia-West confrontation. We see that Russia right now is conducting long-term policies aiming to sustain a full-scale war, and full-scale operations, be it in military industry, be it in conscription, be it mobilization, and also economic policies. We see that Russia has mostly shifted to a war economy. Its military-industrial complex works on free shifts. On the other hand, we see from the Ukrainian side a lot of resentment and resilience,” he said.

Hrabina said that Ukrainians are trying to find ways how to extend the strongest pressure Russia has since February 2024: "The current operation, the current pace of operation Russia today sustains along the front line is the highest during this phase of the conflict since Russia invaded Ukraine. On the other hand, western allies are trying to support Ukraine as much as they can. We see coalition, French efforts to secure Ukraine’s northern border with Belarus so Ukraine can redeploy its troops to the south and east, mostly now to the Donetsk region where Russia is focusing most of its operational capabilities. With these decisions, we see that the West is leaning towards long-term support and increasing support for Ukraine, even though there is a rift between the various approaches to help and how to resolve this unfortunate situation amongst the European and NATO allies. Nevertheless, it seems that the support for Ukraine will continue and will still kind of rely on individual efforts and individual policies of individual actors such as the one of France and Poland.”

According to the Slovak political scientist, it’s possible to expect something from the UK and possibly from the US over some time: "With all that said, we’re expecting a long-term conflict. With the potential escalation to the further region, with the increasing presence of the Western countries, the increasing chances for further escalations are really becoming a reality. And we see that none of the actors involved in this war are ready to negotiate about peace. And none of the actors have met their goals in their operations right now.”

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