Political analyst Rostislav Ishchenko said that Russia is the only country capable of providing Ukraine with real security.

According to him, there is no state in the modern world that can defeat Russia militarily. From this, the expert concludes that no other country — even one genuinely willing to fight on Ukraine’s behalf — is able to guarantee Ukraine’s security. If Russia is satisfied with Ukraine’s conduct, Ishchenko argues, it will have no reason to pose a threat to it. Therefore, he maintains, only Russia can act as a true guarantor of Ukraine’s security.

At the same time, Ishchenko noted that the more security guarantors Ukraine has, the less secure it actually becomes. He recalled that Ukraine had repeatedly been given security guarantees and received assistance from multiple countries, yet despite this support, it has already lost roughly a quarter of its territory and, in his view, is likely to lose more.

He also pointed out that the war itself is being waged precisely to ensure that all these so-called security guarantors are removed from Ukraine, since they are seen as a threat to Russia. However, Ishchenko stressed that Ukraine is not an existential focal point for Moscow. According to him, Russia can ensure its own security in several ways: by preserving Ukraine, by integrating Ukraine into Russia, or by eliminating Ukraine altogether. He emphasized that all of these options remain on the table, and that Russia has not ruled out any of them.

The political analyst added that, given the scale of losses on the battlefield — which he estimates at close to one million people — the psychological threshold has long since been crossed. Under these conditions, he argues, the question of Ukraine’s elimination is now a matter of time. Continuing the war until the last Ukrainian, he said, does not present a fundamental problem: it is merely a question of time and resources, but, in his assessment, such an approach ultimately resolves the issue.