Former Minister Kuleba clarified his remarks about Ukrainians being ready to "fight with shovels."

Former Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba shared that among all the criticism directed at him, he is most affected by remarks regarding his statement from last year. At that time, he declared that Ukrainians would be prepared to fight with shovels if they were not provided with weapons.

https://hromadske.ua/ru/politika/239335-eks-ministr-kuleba-obyasnil-svoi-slova-o-gotovnosti-ukraintsev-voevat-lopatami2025-02-09 09:22:21

He stated this in an interview with Natalia Moseichuk.

Kuleba explained that he used such words because "a strong, emotional image, a metaphor was needed."

"So it turns out that what I said in America to secure weapons for Ukraine has resulted in Kuleba sending everyone to fight with shovels," said the former minister.

According to Kuleba, the criticism regarding this statement is the only one that "bothers" him because he spent about 80% of his time in office dealing with issues related to weapons for Ukraine.

"But when you spend 80% of your time on just this, and there are results that no one expected and that exceeded all expectations, and then you get accused of sending people to fight with shovels, to be honest, that bothers me," he stated.

Recall that amid delays in the approval of new aid for Ukraine from the U.S. in January 2024, Dmytro Kuleba told ABC News that "even if we run out of weapons, we will fight with shovels because the existence of Ukraine is at stake."