Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country needs more time to launch a much-anticipated counter-offensive against Russian forces, even as the military awaits the delivery of promised aid.
Zelensky stated this in an interview for public service broadcasters who are members of Eurovision News at his headquarters in Kyiv, describing combat brigades, some of which were trained by Nato countries, as being ‘ready’ but said the army still needed ‘some things’, including armoured vehicles that were “arriving in batches”.
“With what we already have, we can go forward, and, I think, be successful, But we’d lose a lot of people. I think that’s unacceptable. So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time,” he said.
The president, however, expressed confidence that the Ukrainian military could advance, warning of the risks of a conflict which, according to him, was what Russia was ‘counting on’.
For Kyiv, any result that is seen as disappointing in the West could mean a reduction in military support and pressure to negotiate with Russia. With nearly a fifth of the country under Russian control, and President Vladimir Putin declaring the annexation of four regions his forces partially occupy, this would possibly include discussing land concessions.
“Everyone will have an idea,” President Zelensky said. “But they can’t pressure Ukraine into surrendering territories. Why should any country of the world give Putin its territory?”
According to the BBC, the expected attack could be decisive in the war, redrawing frontlines that, for months, have remained unchanged. It will also be a crucial test for Ukraine, eager to prove that the weapons and equipment it has received from the West can result in significant battlefield gains. When and where the Ukrainian push will happen is a secret. Russian forces, meanwhile, have fortified their defences along a frontline that runs for 900 miles (1,450km) from the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, to Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south.
Ukrainian authorities have tried to lower expectations of a breakthrough, publicly and in private. Earlier this month, a senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the country’s leaders “understood that [they] needed to be successful” but that the assault should not be seen as a “silver bullet” in a war now in its 15th month.
Zelensky dismissed fears about losing US support if President Joe Biden, who has vowed to support Ukraine as long as it takes, is not re-elected in 2024. Ukraine, he said, still enjoyed bipartisan support in the US Congress. “Who knows where we’ll be [when the election happens]?” he said. “I believe we’ll win by then.”
For now, there is no real possibility of talks to end the conflict, as both sides say they will fight until victory. President Zelensky has offered a 10-point peace proposal, calling for the return of all invaded territory, reparation payments for war-related damages and the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russian war crimes, a plan that Moscow has flatly rejected.
The Ukrainian leader said he believed the apparent attack could have been a false flag operation, carried out by Russia itself, and that the claim was being used as an “excuse” by Moscow to attack his country.
“They constantly look for something to sound like a justification, saying: ‘You do this to us, so we do that to you,’” President Zelensky said. “But it didn’t work. Even for their domestic public, it didn’t work. Even their own propagandists didn’t believe that. Because it looked very, very artificial.”
He said he would have preferred to see the competition in a neighbouring country “to where our people could travel to and be very close” but that he had ‘lots of respect’ for Britain.
“The main thing is that the contest is taking place, let the people show their talent,” he said.
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