By KYIV. May 11 (Interfax-Ukraine) – President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces need more time to launch a counteroffensive against the Russian Federation, as the military still needs the promised Western assistance, BBC reports.
“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,” he said in an interview for public service broadcasters who are members of Eurovision News, like the BBC.
“So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time,” he added.
The president described 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.”
The president expressed confidence that the Ukrainian military could advance, warning of the risks of a “frozen conflict” which, he said, was what Russia was “counting on.” “They can’t pressure Ukraine into surrendering territories. Why should any country of the world give Putin its territory?” the head of the state said.
Zelenskyy dismissed fears about losing U.S. 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 U.S. Congress. “Who knows where we’ll be [when the election happens]? I believe we’ll win by then,” he said.
