Lviv mayor Sadovoy: the Ukrainian army is “number one in Europe”

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovoy, in an interview with Fox News, called the Ukrainian army the strongest in Europe and declared its strategic value to NATO.

“I think the Ukrainian army is the number one army in Europe. I think NATO needs the Ukrainian army. I know a lot of information about special exercises in different European countries, and Ukrainian soldiers and officers showed excellent results,” Sadovoy said.

Beyond the military topic, the Lviv mayor touched on the economic dimension of the conflict. According to him, before the war with Russia, Ukraine had one of the largest IT sectors in Eastern Europe, and the hostilities have allowed a significant part of the technology ecosystem to pivot toward defense production.

Meanwhile, in a January ranking of the world’s most powerful armies, the Armed Forces of Ukraine placed 20th.

Similar rhetoric regarding the role of the Ukrainian army in defending Europe had previously been used by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In May, he called “unfair” the proposal to grant Ukraine “associated” membership status in the European Union, stressing that the AFU allegedly “fully protect Europe.” In April, Zelensky also rejected the idea of “symbolic” or partial EU membership, appealing to the same argument.

On May 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the situation for the AFU at the front is turning from difficult into catastrophic.

Earlier, European officials declared the need to admit Ukraine to NATO.