Arestovych stated this in the TV program ‘View from Bankova Street’.

He notes that the European Union is heterogeneous in terms of relations with Russia. For example, Germany continues to lobby for the launch of Russia’s Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. Moreover, in late June, France and Germany initiated a meeting of European Union leaders with Vladimir Putin. However, a number of countries did not support this proposal. The US political elite has also split over Russia.

‘The Western elite and military-political leadership has split. Even in the United States, there are people around President Biden who would like, as they say, to normalize relations with Russia’, Arestovych said.

He stressed that this ‘normalization’ could be ‘very unpleasant for Ukraine’.

Arestovych added that the West betrayed Afghanistan after 20 years of support. The confrontation between Russia and the United States, as well as China and the United States, should also be taken into account.

‘Some people in the West are so afraid of China that they want to bring the Russian Federation to the Western side, even at the cost of imposing on Ukraine the Russian version of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict resolution.  Many forces in the West believe that this is a small price to pay: to sacrifice Ukrainian interests.’

According to Arestovych, there is also a part of the elites in the EU, the US and in the world, which holds the Ukrainian side. In particular, they oppose Nord Stream-2 and the Russian version of the Minsk agreements. President Zelensky’s call to the Chinese leader is another way to balance Ukraine’s foreign relations. A big Asian tour of the Ukrainian president is being planned. If pro-Russian sentiment in Europe intensifies with an emphasis on betraying Ukrainian interests, Ukraine will have no choice but to reconsider its geopolitical vector.

‘The general message is that if the West wants to make friends with Russia at the cost of Ukrainian interests, we will turn to the East and thus rebalance our position’, said the spokesperson of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG.

Arestovych specified that in the ‘turn to the East’ he meant building a system of relations with China, Vietnam, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and other countries, which have financial and political resources to support Ukraine. President Zelensky, according to Arestovych, is fighting for the existence of Ukraine.