It’s time to give Ukraine more help hitting bases inside Russia if they are used for launching attacks or supplying troops, said former US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in an interview with ABC News.

The US top diplomat said the biggest mistake of the West is underestimating Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s true goals, which are restoring at least the Soviet Union if not a larger empire for Russia.

Nuland added that Putin is defining greatness for his country in territorial terms rather than in economic or political. While the West hesitates to supply Ukraine with artillery, air defenses, and other weapons to stop Russian attacks, the more advantage Moscow gets.

“The frontline for Ukraine certainly needs more artillery than we are sending. They need more air defenses. They need to be able to stop these Russian attacks that are coming from bases inside Russia,” Nuland said.

When asked whether a decision to allow Ukraine to hit targets in Russia would escalate the war, the US diplomat claimed that Russia is the side that has escalated it.

“Russia has learned how to pull its forces back out of the range where we have allowed Ukraine to use our weapons and get our support,” said Nuland.

Moscow has flattened the third of Kharkiv without “ever having to get on the ground in the city.”

“So, it is time to stop that and help Ukraine push them back,” the diplomat underlined.

Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview on the fifth anniversary of taking office that Western countries are extremely slow in making decisions on military aid to Kyiv, hampering Ukraine’s armed forces.

All Western aid decisions for Ukraine lag by one year – Zelenskyy

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