The Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Dimitri Kulebahas charged against those who criticize the alleged slowness of the military counteroffensive, considering it a lack of respect for members of the Armed Forces. To these critical voices he urges go to the front of combat and “liberate a square centimeter”.

“Criticize the slowness of the counteroffensive is equivalent to spitting in the face of Ukrainian soldiers who sacrifice their lives every day”, concluded the minister, who invited “all critics” to “shut up, come to Ukraine and try to liberate a square centimeter (of territory) by themselves”.

Kuleba spoke like this to the media this Thursday together with his Spanish counterpart, José Manuel Albares, in the context of the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers held in Toledo. An occasion that he has taken advantage of to demand more weapons from his partners.

It hopes that more countries join the fighter coalition as more governments are willing to cross the training threshold to deliver F-16s, as Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have already announced.

On the other hand, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister has celebrated the progress of the “diplomatic counter-offensive” and trusts the start of EU accession talks this year – he sees it “possible” -.

Regarding this Thursday’s meeting, he calls it “significant” and sees room to continue advancing, for example, to favor the departure of Ukrainian grain, both by land and by sea. In this sense, it has announced commitments to expand land corridors but has also considered “possible” that there are alternative routes by sea “that do not involve Russia”, afterthe breakdown in July of the agreement between kyiv and Moscowthat had facilitated exports in the Black Sea. He has advocated working “together” so that “world food security does not depend on the hunger games and blackmail from Russia.”

On the other hand, he thanked the European will to find formulas that allow those responsible for war crimes to be tried and “redouble efforts” so that children “forcibly deported or kidnapped” can return to Ukraine.