“A part of Ukrainian society is starting to lose patience with the West. » This sentence is not uttered by a member of the government of Volodymyr Zelensky. Nor a senior military official. Maybe that’s what they think, but it’s a tricky question. Not applicable. He who says it – because he can say it – is Serhiy Prytulapresident of one of the main foundations launched by Ukrainian civil society to fight the Russian army and one of the men who make the link between the front and the inhabitants of cities like kyiv, Lviv or Odessa.
You only need to look at the figures to understand the importance of Serhiy Prytula Charitable Foundation. To date, it has raised $200 million and sent about 30,000 drones – of all kinds – to units fighting in the east, 400 combat vehicles and 150 boats for water operations in the Dnieper delta. And the cherry on the cake: a satellite launched into orbit in 2022 to facilitate the work of the Ukrainian intelligence services.
In other words: the Serhiy Prytula Charitable Foundation is very well connected.
“Ukrainians are not stupid,” says a visibly upset Prytula during an interview with representatives of several European newspapers, including EL ESPAÑOL, in his office. A space located on the top floor of a building in the center of kyiv, covered with sandbags and through which volunteers constantly move, carrying boxes on which we can read the names of the different areas of the front: Pokrovsk, Kupiansk, Lyman, Velyka Novosilka. “We look around us and see how quickly countries like Iran or North Korea, which honor their alliance with Russia, send weapons, while we have to wait a damn year to receive a handful of tanks and more than two to have a few F – 16”.
“Citizens in the rest of Europe must understand – he adds – that every hour of delay, every day of delay, every week of delay costs the lives of our parents, our brothers and sisters, our children” , he explains. A sentence that refers to a recent survey according to which 77% of Ukrainians lost friends or acquaintances during the war, and 22% lost an immediate family member..
After the event, Prytula clarified that Ukrainians are “very grateful” to the West for all the help received and, above all, happy not to be alone in their battle against Russia. But he warns that more and more people are wondering – given the eternal negotiations around arms deliveries and the ups and downs of the community bloc in this regard – whether all these declarations of intentions linked to membership to NATO will not be empty promises.
“And believe me: if discontent with the West continues to grow, Europe will face a very complicated scenario,” he says.
The last sentence of Prytula, whose interview with the group of European journalists takes place a day after the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Vuhledar, finds an echo in the impressions collected by the magazine’s correspondent The economist.
“Indeed, a dysfunctional Ukraine could become a dangerous neighbor,” asserts the Anglo-Saxon journalist in an article published at the beginning of October. “If Ukrainians feel betrayed, Vladimir Putin “This could radicalize a whole host of experienced battlefield militias and launch them against the West and NATO. »
Even more powerful than Prytula is the leader of a drone unit called Yuri Fedorenko. Questioned by the correspondent of the British magazine, he declared that “the West, and the United States in particular, bear unequivocal responsibility for the deaths of the Ukrainians.”
His reflection casts a shadow over the figures recently proposed by the general Volodymyr Horbatioukwho said that currently, for every Ukrainian fighter, six Russians die. An equation which corresponds to the figures transmitted from Washington, where it is assured that the war cost the lives of 100,000 Russians and left an additional 430,000 injured.
However, according to the latest estimates, Moscow’s troops outnumber kyiv’s by 90,000 – 450,000 to 540,000 – and many Russians have come to fight voluntarily. “They are openly killing us while the West gives its silent consent with a response that is as powerless as it is ineffective”said Fedorenko.
Asked about the future of the war, Serhiy Prytula, who personally knows many of the commanders leading operations in the country’s east, says much will depend on whether the United States continues to maintain support after the elections. next year. month of November. “If you don’t do this, the situation will become very complicated.” In any case, he assures, “we will continue to fight”.
