The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced their readiness to "defend themselves independently from Russia"

He said this in an interview with 1 + 1 channel.

As he noted, the defense department of Ukraine worked out possible steps in the event of such a development.

“We have a ready-made response to such a scenario,” the minister said.

Along with this, Zagorodniuk pointed out that the Ukrainian side continues to receive assistance from NATO, including weapons and equipment.

Earlier, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksiy Taran said that Russia was allegedly preparing for a large-scale military aggression.

In April, the ex-secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov said that Russia was preparing for a “full-scale war” in Europe, and Ukraine, in his opinion, would be the “first springboard”.

In March, a similar statement was made by the former chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Viktor Muzhenko. He pointed out that Russia was plotting an invasion of Ukraine "in three directions."

On February 26, the former Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko spoke about the threat of "full-blown aggression" from Russia to the leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kiev. A couple of days earlier, he spoke about the same thing during a debate at the UN General Assembly in New York.

In December 2018, Kurt Volker, former special representative of the State Department for Ukraine, said that Russia was allegedly building up its armed forces near the borders with Ukraine.