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Ambassador Prokopchuk: Ukraine's success in defending its own territory is in Romania's interest
Ukraine’s success consolidates the security environment of Romania, while losses on the fight territory or as regards infrastructure of any sort increase the risks, stated, recently Kjev’s ambassador to Bucharest, Ihor Prokopciuk, in a press conference.
The diplomat also discussed the issue of a possible handover by Romania of a PATRIOT air defence system to his country, indicating that this is not a negotiation, but rather an internal evaluation process.
‘We can’t say that we negotiate with our Romanian friends in connection to the transfer of a PATRIOT system. We presented the needs, Ukraine’s request and we hope and we expect that there is a possibility to meet these needs and demands. We welcome the fact that, in Romania, this evaluation process regarding the possibility to meet these requests and we hope the answer is “yes”, said Prokopchuk.
Ihor Prokopchuk mentioned that Romania is some hundreds of kilometres from the war started by Russia against his country, Ukraine’s success in defending their territory being in Romania’s interest.
‘Romania is the closest country to this conflict zone, some hundred kilometres away. So, the more we, the Ukrainians, discourage or counterattack the Russian attacks, the safer Romania is. When the Ukrainian troops managed to make the Russian forces to withdraw from the Serpent Island two years ago, we contributed to the safety of navigation on the Danube’, he said.
The ambassador mentioned the recent incidents with Russian drones which fell on Romania’s territory.
"The Russians are not only launching drones against Ukraine, but also missiles. So the better armed we are against Russian attacks, the safer everyone is," Prokopchuk said.
He also stressed the need for support from neighbouring countries in the context of Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.
Ihor Prokopchuk also estimated the transit of Ukrainian products by water through Romania via the humanitarian corridor.
‘Until the present, over 1,700 ships used this corridor, transporting over 50 million tons of products, out of which 34 million tons were cerals. It is a great success. We managed to unblock the Ukrainian ports, despite the continuous attacks of the Russian forces’ said Prokopchuk.