– If you had asked me a month ago, I would not have thought that a Ukrainian victory was possible;

– But now I think it’s a possibility, Lieutenant General Arne Brd Dalhaug told Dagbladet.

The comments came a day after Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko said that nearly two-thirds of the city’s residents had returned after fleeing hostilities.

– Before the war, 3.5 million people lived in Kyiv. Nearly two-thirds remaining, Klitschko said at a news conference on Tuesday.

– I’m well

According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, Ukrainian troops have recaptured several villages in the Kharkiv region.

– Our troops have given us good news from the Kharkiv region. The invaders were gradually being pushed away from Kharkiv, Zelenskyj said in a speech on Tuesday, according to Guard.

Dalhaug said that there is now optimism in Ukraine which has become increasingly clear in recent days.

– This is mainly due to the significant progress in Kharkiv, where they have taken a lot. The troops were now ten kilometers from the Russian border, which could threaten Russian supplies in Izium, he said.

– Succeed

According to the US-based ISW (Institute for the Study of War) think tank, the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region was so successful that Russian troops would likely be pushed back to the border.

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai also said on Wednesday that Russian troops had failed in their attempts to overrun the region’s cities of Rubizhne, Nizhnje, Toshkivka and Orikhove. It wrote the local Ukrainian newspaper UNI.

– Despite attacks from Russia in recent weeks, little has changed on the Donbas front, from a bird’s eye view, Dalhaug explains.

Russia’s reserves are also not large, said the lieutenant general.

Will expel Russia

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview with Financial time that Ukraine is now increasing its war targets.

In the first months of the war, the victory for Ukraine was the Russian troops retreating into the occupied territories they controlled before the war broke out on February 24, Kuleba explained to the newspaper.

Russian hypersonic missiles: – Highly praised

– But now, if we are strong enough militarily, and we win the battle for the Donbas, then victory for us in this war is to liberate the rest of our territory, he said.

In other words; the plan is to throw Russia out of the country completely.

The foreign ministers stressed that this required the West to continue supplying weapons to Ukraine.

Biden with new law

– Progress is also due to the large arms supplies that have come in, and which have come to Ukraine, Dalhaug said, pointing to Biden’s new law.

On Monday, a new law and lease bill was signed by US President Joe Biden, allowing the US to lend or lease military equipment to Ukraine and other war-affected Eastern European countries.

– Prices for matches are not cheap. But it is even more expensive to succumb to aggression, the president said.

Biden also asked Congress to approve a new $33 billion – $320 billion – grant to support Ukraine.

Germany is increasing

– There has also been a steady increase in Western sanctions against Russia, which suggests that Ukraine has a lot of support, Dalhaug points out.

He said it was now clear that Germany had stepped up its support for Ukraine.

Germany has reopened its embassy in Kyiv, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said during a visit to the Ukrainian capital.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba thanked Baerbock and Germany for changing their policy towards Moscow, both by allowing a boycott of Russian oil and by sending weapons and military equipment to Ukraine.

– Putin has no plans

“Germany has changed its stance on arms deliveries to Ukraine, and Prime Minister Olaf Scholz has announced the start of a new policy towards Russia,” Kuleba said.

– There is no reason to stop

Although there is optimism in Ukraine, caused by several factors, that does not mean it cannot be reversed, Dalhaug stressed. But if Ukraine wins, it is uncertain that Russia will be left with Ukrainian territory, he said.

– If the Russian troops were pushed back to the border in Donbas, where they were before February 24, I see no reason to stop there.

According to Dalhaug, the big question is what happened on the Crimean peninsula.

– If this scenario had to happen, then Crimea would be the last to surrender, the lieutenant general believed.