Ukraine cannot be compared to Afghanistan, as our state has been holding up against the most powerful armies in the world more than seven years, and in the first days of Russia's escalation Ukrainian people deterred the aggression only with own efforts. This was stated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an interview with CNN.
"In 2014, may partners in the United States and the EU forgive us, at first we ended up where we ended up. There was Russian escalation. Our territories were occupied. No one was hand in hand with us. There was no military equipment other than what we had available at that time. There were no other troops, just the citizens of Ukraine," the head of state said.
Zelenskyy said that when the Russian aggression started, Ukrainians had the wave of volunteers, volunteer battalions, people who came together as a citizen effort to protect their own country.
"Even in eight years, Russia didn't manage to take over. Russia, this is not the Taliban army. It is one of the most powerful armies in the world. We defended our statehood. That is why, I think, we are as independent as possible from any country," the President said.
The head of state said that Ukraine is not so dependent on the United States like Afghanistan was.
"I really believe that in four or five or seven days, you can't take such a big country geographically as Ukraine with such a big population and simply occupy it like that," Zelenskyy said.