Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi assured on Thursday that he has a battle plan for the Ukrainian army to liberate several cities in eastern and southern Ukraine controlled by Russia, while his Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba again rejected any ceasefire or negotiations with Moscow, reports EFE. agency, quoted by Agerpres.

“I have a plan. We have very clear cities, directions where you can advance. I can’t reveal the details, but we have small successes in the south, as well as in the east,” Zelenskyy said during a video conference with the United States, during which he tried to dispel the doubts of both his country and the West after the counteroffensive launched by the Ukrainian army in June did not give the expected results.

Zelenskyi, who on Thursday extended martial law and general mobilization for three months, emphasized, in particular, the progress of the Ukrainian army in the south of the Kherson region, which created a bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Dnieper and managed to transfer part of the tanks there.

In his turn, the head of the NSDC, Oleksiy Danilov, on Thursday also spoke about Kyiv’s “great successes” in drone and missile strikes on Russian army facilities in Crimea. “The destruction of their assets on the territory of Crimea and the destruction of the Black Sea Fleet is a great success of our country,” said the Ukrainian official, actually referring to the damage to the Russian missile ship “Askold” during the attack in the city, which, according to Russia, out of eight launched Storm Shadow missiles by Ukraine, seven of which were shot down by a Russian anti-aircraft system, and parts of the eighth downed missile also fell into this ship.

“Some voices among Republicans are really dangerous,” says Zelensky

In his speech on Thursday, Zelensky again criticized the slow supply of Western weapons and acknowledged that the attitude of some Republican politicians in the US, who do not want to continue financial and military support to Ukraine, is causing concern in Kyiv. “Some voices among Republicans are really dangerous. Of course, our people are afraid,” admitted the Ukrainian president, who, however, refrained from commenting on how he would perceive the possible return of Donald Trump to the White House.

On the other hand, Zelensky asked the West to hand over to Ukraine for recovery all frozen Russian assets, amounting to about 400 billion euros, and not only the interest and dividends received from them.

During this time, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, in a post on the X social network, rejected any cessation of hostilities or negotiations with Moscow, thus reacting to information that recently appeared in the media about discreet discussions between Kyiv and the West regarding peace talks with Russia. “Those who say that Ukraine should now start negotiations with Russia are either uninformed, or they don’t understand, or they are on Russia’s side and want (Vladimir) Putin to rest before even greater aggression,” the head of Ukrainian diplomacy said.

Since November 2022, the front line has hardly moved

In June, Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the southeast in the Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions to liberate territories occupied by Russian forces, with the aim, above all, of reaching the Sea of ​​Azov to cut off Russia’s land link with Crimea and the southern part of Russia. Kherson province. But the territorial gains in this counteroffensive are still insignificant, the Ukrainian army managed to liberate only a few villages at the cost of heavy losses of personnel and equipment. The Russian army, in turn, is advancing further north, but so far with little progress and with heavy losses.

Thus, the front line, with a length of more than 1,000 kilometers, has hardly moved since November 2022, when, under the threat of a Ukrainian offensive, the Russian army withdrew from the northern part of the Ukrainian Kherson region beyond the Dnipro. , establishing – and defending – the natural barrier represented by this river, over which the Ukrainian army has created the bridgehead mentioned by Zelenskyi, although it remains to be seen whether this will allow the deployment of larger military operations from there.

The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, General Valery Zaluzhny, warned in an article and interview published last week by The Economist that the war with Russia has reached a stalemate, at the stage of a conflict of attrition, and that Ukraine needs new weapons, technologically superior to Russia’s, and new troops to to be able to advance.

Zaluzhnya was contradicted by Zelensky, who assessed the results of the Ukrainian counteroffensive below expectations due to Russia’s superiority in the air. In connection with this topic, the spokesman of the Air Force of Ukraine Yuriy Ignat said on Thursday that the training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 aircraft in Romania has not yet started.

• Read also: Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for unity after a clash with the army chief, but anxiety is growing in Kyiv

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