Ukraine urges calm over invasion fears but asks U.S. to sanction Russia, send more weapons

Judy Woodruff:

We return now to the crisis over Ukraine.

As we reported, Ukraine's leaders are urging their citizens to remain calm, even as Russia poses a massive threat to the U.S. ally.

Nick Schifrin has more on the view of Ukraine's government.

Nick Schifrin:

Thank you, Judy.

We turn now to Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States.

Ambassador, welcome to the "NewsHour."

Today, we heard President Zelensky say that Ukrainians should not be panicked. But from comments by President Biden last week, all the way to Prime Minister Johnson today, it is clear that the West thinks an invasion could be imminent.

Are you downplaying the threat in order not to cause panic, or do you see the threat differently?

Oksana Markarova, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States: Actually, we do see the threat exactly the same way our partners are seeing it.

So, Russia attacked us in 2014. We know what they are capable of. We know that they illegally already occupied Crimea and part of Donetsk and Luhansk territories. And we know that these 100,000 troops around our is not there just to be there.

So, yes, Ukrainians are worried. But, as our president said, we should not panic. We should get ready to defend our country. And this is what we are doing. So, in addition to the military offensive that Russia is planning and portraying, they also are doing a lot to destabilize situation in the country, so all the cyberattacks, disinformation, information attack. They want us to panic.

And we will not panic. We will get prepared. We will also do everything in order to continue to build our country, to reform our economy, and we are resolute to defend our country.

Nick Schifrin:

Do you believe, as the U.S. does, that an invasion could be imminent?

Oksana Markarova:

Well, again, with a neighbor like Russia, this is a reality with which we live for the past 400 years.

We know the threat is there. We know the threat is very high. And the diplomats, together with all the government, with the president, and together with our international partners and allies, especially with the United States, we are working hard in order for the option A, as we say, the diplomatic solution, to be still possible.

And we are working very hard to dissuade Russia from making this mistake.

Nick Schifrin:

In terms of trying to persuade Russia not to make this mistake, as you put it, trying to prevent war, the Ukrainian government is calling on the U.S. government to impose sanctions now on Russia, while the administration says that they are waiting for sanctions in order to maintain sanctions' deterrent value.

Why do you disagree with that?

Oksana Markarova:

We are trying to prevent Russia from further aggression and further invading — invasion of Ukraine.

And that calls for next level of sanctions. And we are working very closely with our partners and allies here on what these sanctions could be. And, yes, Ukraine is advocating that these sanctions should be very strong.

And we are very pleased to hear from the administration, from President Biden that the cost and the sanctions are going to be nothing that Russia ever saw. And, yes, there are also grounds for the sanctions to be applied now.

So, both as the deterrent, the future sanctions, and the sanctions for what Russia already did, until it changes in behavior, are well-supported by Ukraine.

Nick Schifrin:

The Ukrainian government has also been asking for more weapons from the U.S. government, anti-ship weapons, surface-to-air weapons, even beyond what the U.S. has been providing this week.

If — do you think, if the U.S. provided more weapons, it would deter Russia?

Oksana Markarova:

Absolutely.

Last year, the United States support, military assistance to Ukraine has been the highest since 2014, more than 650 million U.S. dollars. And during the past three days, we see on a daily basis how flights are coming in from the United States delivering their military assistance from the $200 million package that has been authorized by President Biden in December.

So, again, it's a very much united front that the civilized world is putting together, helping us, because this is not a fight about Ukraine. It's a fight about values and principles. So, anyone who treasures freedom and democracy and believes that those values and principles are worth to fight for are standing together with Ukraine these days.

Nick Schifrin:

Do you acknowledge that there are weapons the Ukrainian government is requesting that the administration is refusing to provide?

Oksana Markarova:

Of course. I mean, if you ask me, do we need more Javelins or do we need more weapons, yes, we do.

I mean, we are only rebuilding our capabilities after we started building institutions in our country after the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. But I think, already, we have large progress there, and our American friends and colleagues are the ones who we have to thank for it.

Nick Schifrin:

The U.S., as I had mentioned before, believes the threat to your government could be existential, including an encirclement of Kiev and regime change, as the British government said in its intelligence release this weekend.

Given the level of threat, are you willing to consider any concessions to Moscow, from more autonomy for the regions under the control of separatists in the east, to your future in NATO, in order to try and avoid invasion?

Oksana Markarova:

There are principal issues which are very important for Ukraine, as I said, to be independent, to be sovereign, to decide our future by ourselves, to be part of the European Union and NATO, and to be whole again, to restore our territorial integrity.

So, we are peaceful people. We never planned any offensives and we never attacked anyone. But we are not ready to give up on our sovereignty, on our — or on our principal values and beliefs. So we hope that, together with all of our partners and allies, we will send a very clear message to Moscow, and that Moscow will realize that Ukraine does not pose any military threat to Russia.

And if they're afraid of us to be successful and democratic, then they can they can — they can feel that, but it's not a reason, in the 21st century, to attack a sovereign country. And, no, we are not ready to give up because we know that, when we are giving up on something, like it happened in the previous century, the result for Ukraine is devastating.

While we were occupied by the Soviet Union, Ukraine suffered from horrible tragedies, from Holodomor, the genocide that has been organized in 1932-1933, which cost us millions of lives. And people were killed only because they were Ukrainians.

We went through a series of wars. And so we can only be successful when we are independent and when Ukrainians decide, what do we want to do in Ukraine and how do we want to live?

Nick Schifrin:

Ambassador Markarova, thank you very much.

Oksana Markarova:

Thank you very much.