Leonid Kuchma, who was the president of Ukraine from 1994 to 2005, spoke about the war Russia launched against his country.
Modern.az reports that Kuchma, who has rarely spoken to journalists in recent years, not only shared his views on Ukrainian politics and the situation on the battlefield in a written interview with BBC Ukrainian Service, but also commented on the most controversial events of his presidency.
The only ex-president in Ukrainian history to be re-elected for a second term said that he currently lives in Kyiv. He compared the regular mass shelling of the capital by the Russian army to the bombing of his native village, Chaikino in Chernihiv Oblast, by the Nazis.
“Since childhood, I have been “mentally prepared” for major bombardments. “In my childhood, my “bomb shelter” was the basement, and I had to sit there every day,” he notes.
Kuchma said that as a Ukrainian, he believes in the strength of the army, and as a missile specialist, he is aware of the power of nuclear deterrence:
“Therefore, our war will definitely end one day, but the probability of World War III starting, which can only be nuclear, is low.”
