"Our [Ukraine's] second danger is our economic dependence on Russia and our technological dependence on Russia," Sergeyev said at the International Stability Operations Association (ISOA), a Washington-based group of military and humanitarian service and equipment providers, on Tuesday.
Sergeyev mentioned Ukraine's decades-long reliance on Russia in areas such as energy, space research, military production and nuclear enrichment. He decried the fact that Kiev has not learned any lessons from the past and has yet to change policies in order to reduce these dependencies.
Meanwhile, the main risk facing Ukraine is its lack of sufficient armaments in the struggle against independence supporters in eastern regions, according to Sergeyev. Although he said there was no military solution to the conflict, the country still needed to be well-equipped in order to defend itself.
Following a February coup in Kiev, residents of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions established people's republics that later declared their independence. The crisis escalated further when Kiev authorities launched a military operation against the independence supporters in mid-April.
