Amid uncertainty over EU aid, Vitalii Kim insists Ukraine has no choice but to fight for motherland

He's here in Paris to talk with the Armed Forces Ministry of Ukraine. Veterans Affairs Minister Vitaly Kim, thank you for speaking with us here on France 24. Thank you for inviting me to be here. It's only a six-day truce. It's very localized. It's near the front line. Your reaction to the fact that, well, so far, it's holding? You're talking about Oleshky, Olmeca? Oleshki. this town this territory was occupied since 2022 and russians continue to terrorize civilian people and some kind of humanitarian catastrophe there is now in there so i think that it will help civilian people to move from alexia and to receive support they need so i think this is very important for our civilian people that are now waiting in occupation the u.s brokers of the deal saying that those who are evacuated will have the choice. Either they can go towards the Russian side or the Ukrainian side. Do you have faith in that agreement? I think it is a good decision to let people choose where they want to go. Because Russians decrease the population of Ukraine on the occupied territory from 100% up to 20%. They seize their private property, creating awful conditions for living and settle. So let people choose. When we look at this map, again, we see Mykolayiv is right next to Kherson. The city of Kherson itself comes under constant bombardment. Your thoughts on how the situation has evolved in the past year, again, in a region you know well, since you were the governor and mykolaiv mykolaiv region is recovering after that 2022 because we had active deals on the ground till November 2022 and over the four years we recovered our economy we're trying to be a frontline region but with active economy but Kherson region has a lot of problems because the Kherson city situated on the Dnipro river and the enemies stood standing less than 4 kilometers, the front line is through the sea so they are bombarded and shelled every day, I think with small drones, this is a huge problem with low range small drones and very cheap drones I think it's about 1500 a day small drones attacking Kherson and Nikolaev region is defended at least and small drone cannot receive it the life of the Kherson region is changed a lot for the next for this year because we all remember those uh images back early uh a few years back when uh Ukraine took back the city of Kherson people were waving the EU flag in the city what's morale like when you describe the situation with again that constant shelling from close range? There is no morale in here. The city was occupied. People are still in Kherson region. They are continuing resilience and still living in Kherson region. Yes, they have a lot of problems in civil life, but still they're happy that they are not a part of Russia. Let's talk about Paris. You're here to meet with the the Armed Forces Ministry, the Veterans Affairs Minister in particular. In your new post, you're having to deal with the growing numbers, of course, of veterans who are coming back, sometimes physically intact, but feeling the trauma of having been to the front. What do you get out of the accords you've signed with the French? What are you looking for here? We need to coordinate our strategies and the support of the European Union and France for Ukraine, because we are now reworking the strategy of ministry. We want to decrease bureaucracy. We want to increase health care and mental care and family care about our veterans. Now we have 1.5 million veterans, and in a couple of years, in the near future, this amount will increase to up to 3 million veterans. together with the families it will be about nine millions of people of ukraine that have problems due to war that's why it's very important to synchronize our programs because some programs of friends that support in ukraine like super humans and other they are tremendous they are very efficient and you have experience that we need to take care about our people like you did in what way i mean the the the french armed forces since the deployment to afghanistan have not really seen much combat no uh it's not the way like this you have experience to work in a sphere like mental health uh you understand you have different programs that was operating for years. We do not want to invite the bicycle. We need to take your programs and to adopt it to the Ukraine. Also, to tell the truth, we are talking about that our experience in digitalizing about our programs will be useful for France. So it is a two-way road, and we are discussing both ways you've been in the post for a few months now what's the biggest surprise you felt on that score when it comes to dealing with again you said 1.5 million veterans and counting no surprise at all no nothing new nothing uncommon and nothing complicated we will do everything to to give everything our veteran society needs i think we will digitalize all the process we will cut all bureaucracy will create services, health care and other services for veterans to a system that will operate for long years. The veterans who come back, what's the biggest thing they ask for? There is no direct answer for this question. Majority of them have problems with the health, with the mental health, health care. Also for payment that they receive, they should receive after they came back from the military forces. So the biggest problems are bureaucracy, because they are now running between our ministers, taking many papers and doing a lot of work that they shouldn't do. We need to do it for them. The French, the other European Union members, they're still haggling over the aid, the financial aid, that 90 billion euro package for Ukraine. Any thoughts on what will be the scenario if that money doesn't come in full? Nothing will change, to tell the truth. It will be harder for us to resist, but that's it, because the biggest problem was in 2022, when there was no support at all. It just started to come in 2022 at the end. So it will be harder for us to resist and to fight. But we do not have a choice. If Europe is supporting us, we will fight with the results. But if Europe will not support us, we also will fight because it is our motherland and we do not have a choice not to fight with support or without support. It will be anyway. But I think that Ukraine for now is defending not only itself, But the whole Europe, because our aggressor talking through the mouth, that he is interested in Europe also. Vitaly, Kim, one final question. Last winter was really not so much a turning point, but an escalation with Russia targeting energy infrastructure. since then they've gotten better at uh uh those with those motor-powered drones at uh targeting uh ukraine what's the mood as we as the temperature starts to drop the mood is stable people just get tired because the attacks and shelling for our energy system they have Accumulative effect. Russia didn't manage to destroy our energy system in one year, but they damaged it for 20%, I don't know. But accumulating effect, year by year, it becomes more difficult for us. Because, first of all, it is uncomfortable, because people are tired from the war and they want to finish it. That's why this winter and this shelling that we have now affecting people more hardly. And when you heard in that clip Donald Trump saying, we're going to get the two presidents together to talk, what's your reaction? I need to be politically correct to answer this question. I have no reaction, I have only my job to do. All right, Vitaly Kim, your silence speaks volumes. Thank you for being with us here on France 24. Thank you very much for inviting me.