Norwegian army chief skeptical that Ukraine’s military can triumph over Russia
General Eirik Kristoffersen said that he does not believe in a military solution to the confrontation between the Ukrainian army and the Russian troops (Photo:US Army War College/Flickr)
Neither Ukraine nor Russia will win the war by military means and there is no short-term solution to this conflict, head of the Norwegian Armed Forces General Eirik Kristoffersen has said.
Kristoffersen gave his opinion in an interview with the newspaper Klassekampen, Norwegian news outlet VG reported on Feb. 17.
“It will take a very long time for one side to win a final victory over the other, and this will have terrible consequences for people,” Kristoffersen said.
At the same time, Lieutenant Colonel Palle Ydstebø, who heads the Department of Land Forces at the Norwegian Military Academy, is more optimistic.
He still believes that while the war might last for a long time, it is quite realistic to expect Ukraine to win it.
"Ukraine can count on the entire Western economy, while Russia will have to be content with limited support from North Korea and Iran, as well as technological support from China," the Norwegian lieutenant colonel said.
Neither does Ydstebø believe that Russia's war against Ukraine can be resolved at the negotiating table.
"At the moment, I don't think it is politically possible for the Ukrainian government to agree to give up a part of the country," he said.
“It will be a battle for who can survive, and in the worst case scenario, it will drag on for several years.”
Earlier, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said on Jan. 20 that it would be difficult for Ukraine's defenders to militarily dislodge the Russian occupiers from every inch of Ukrainian territory in 2023, given the length of the front line.
"That doesn't mean it can't happen; doesn't mean it won't happen, but it'd be very, very difficult," Milley said.
Commenting on the U.S. general's doubts, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said that the assessments of Ukrainian intelligence remain "unchanged and absolutely reasonable." Spy chief Kyrylo Budanov predicted that the Ukrainian Armed Forces would return to occupied Crimea by the end of the spring of 2023.
National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said that he would consider "the collapse of Russia, its disappearance as a coherent subject of history and politics" to be a real Ukrainian victory.
And speaking recently in the UK parliament, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said he was confident that Ukraine would defeat Russia in the war.
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