Ukrainian military do not launch a powerful rocket attack on columns of Russian military equipment that cross the terrorist-controlled border, because it might provoke a full-scale war with Russia, which will use all its military might, reports GHN based on Ukrinform.
Deputy Head of Ukraine's Presidential Administration Valeriy Chaly said this during the Freedom of Speech program on the ICTV television channel.
"As a diplomat, I think that our task, as we implement it, is to diplomatically avoid a full-scale war in Central Europe. If such a strike is directly delivered, this will unleash a war with the use of aircraft, etc," he said, when asked why the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not launch a rocket attack, including with the use of a Tochka-U tactical missile, on military columns from Russia.
Chaly said that such a move would have turned the conflict into "a completely different scale." In addition, international support for Ukraine, particularly in Europe, could have suffered some losses, he added.
However, he said, Ukrainian forces will in no way retreat from their positions on the line defined by the Minsk memorandum. If militants make an attack, the whole country will fight, he said.
"If there is a large-scale attack [from the territory controlled by rebels], and such threats are being discussed, this will be a war, and the whole of Ukraine will be fighting," he said.
Chaly said that the Ukrainian authorities were still trying to use all possibilities to resolve the conflict by observing the provisions of the peace plan.