The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi says that the war with Russia is in a new stage, and winter will complicate combat operations after the summer counteroffensive, which did not give the expected results due to a constant shortage of weapons and ground forces, the Associated Press reports.

However, despite the setbacks, he said that Ukraine will not give up.

“We have a new phase of war, and that’s a fact,” Zelenskyy said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press on Thursday in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, where the president was in the war zone. , to boost morale. in the region. “Winter in general is a new stage of war,” he adds.

When asked whether he was satisfied with the results of the counteroffensive, Zelenskyy gave a detailed answer. “Look, we are not retreating, I am satisfied. We are fighting with the second (best) army in the world, I am satisfied,” he said, referring to the Russian army. But he added: “We’re losing people, I’m not happy. I didn’t get all the weapons I wanted, I can’t be happy, but I can’t complain too much either.”

Zelensky also expressed concern that the war between Israel and Hamas threatens to overshadow the conflict in Ukraine, as competing political agendas and limited resources threaten the flow of Western military aid to Kyiv. Those concerns are compounded by the unrest that inevitably comes in a US election year and its potential implications for his country, which has seen the international community largely rally around him since the February 24, 2022, invasion of Russia.

The long-awaited Ukrainian counteroffensive, fueled by tens of billions of dollars in Western military aid, including heavy weapons, has not made the expected progress. Now some Ukrainian officials fear that future aid will not be so generous. At the same time, ammunition stocks are running out, which threatens to destroy Ukrainian actions on the battlefield.

Ukraine did not receive all the necessary weapons

As winter takes its toll once again on war-torn Ukraine, the military leadership must face additional but familiar challenges as the conflict enters its second full year. The temperature has dropped to zero and the barren fields leave the soldiers exposed. And in the cities, the threat of large-scale Russian airstrikes on energy infrastructure and civilians once again arose. On November 25, Moscow launched its largest drone strike of the war, with most of the 75 Iranian-made Shahed drones targeting Kyiv, setting a disturbing precedent for the coming months.

“That’s why the winter war is difficult,” Zelenskyy said. He gave an honest assessment of the counterattack last summer. “We wanted faster results. From this point of view, unfortunately, we did not get the desired results. And this is a fact,” he said.

According to him, Ukraine did not receive all the necessary weapons from the allies, and the limitations on the number of military forces prevented rapid progress, Zelenskyy explained. “There is not enough strength to achieve the desired results faster. But this does not mean that we should give up, that we should give up,” Zelenskyy added. “We are confident in our actions. We are fighting for what is ours,” continued the Kyivan.

Positive results of the last months

According to him, there have been some positive findings in recent months.

According to Zelenskyi, Ukraine managed to gain local territorial gains against a better armed and fortified enemy.

In addition, the number of Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet was reduced after Ukrainian attacks, which penetrated air defenses and hit the headquarters in occupied Crimea, Zelenskyy noted.

And the temporary corridor for the transportation of grain, created by Kyiv after Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Agreement, is still operating.

What Ukraine is preparing

However, Zelensky does not dwell on the past, but focuses on the next stage – stimulation of the domestic production of weapons.

A significant part of Ukraine’s budget is allocated for these purposes, but the current production is far from sufficient to change the course of the war. Zelensky is now counting on Western allies, including the United States, for loans and lucrative contracts to achieve this goal. “This is a way out,” Zelensky believes, adding that nothing scares Russia more than a militarily self-sufficient Ukraine.

When he last met with US President Joe Biden, members of Congress and other high-ranking officials, he made an urgent appeal: to provide Ukraine with low-interest loans and licenses to manufacture American weapons. “Give us these opportunities and we will build,” he promised. “Whatever effort and time it takes, we will do it, and we will do it very quickly,” he confidently assures.

What Ukraine is preparing

But Zelenskyi remains concerned that unrest in the Middle East, the most violent in decades, threatens to divert the attention and resources of the world community from Ukraine’s ability to defend itself. “We are already seeing the consequences of the change (attention) of the international community due to the tragedy in the Middle East,” he said. “Only a blind person does not recognize this,” Zelensky insisted.

Ukrainians understand “that it is necessary to fight to draw attention to the war on a large scale. We must not allow people to forget about the war in our country,” the president emphasized.

This shift in focus could lead to a reduction in economic and military aid to his country, he believes. Apparently, in an attempt to allay these fears, US and European officials continued to visit Kyiv after the October 7 terrorist attacks from Israel.

“You see, attention is help. Without attention, there is no help. We fight for every bit of attention,” he admitted. “Ignoring the weakness of the (American) Congress can be a problem,” the president said.

Speaking about the upcoming election campaigns in the US, where Biden faces skepticism about his strong support for Kyiv, Zelenskyy admitted that “elections are always a shock, and that’s quite understandable.”

A recent AP poll in the US showed that almost half of Americans believe that too much is being spent on Ukraine. There is a growing number of Republicans who do not favor sending more aid, and it is unclear whether Congress will approve a request for more aid from the White House. When asked about this, Zelensky firmly answered that “the choice of the Americans is the choice of the Americans.” But, he continued, by helping Ukraine, the Americans are also helping themselves.

“In the case of Ukraine, if resilience fails today due to lack of aid and lack of weapons and funding, it will mean that Russia will most likely invade NATO countries,” he predicts. “And then American children will fight,” the Ukrainian leader emphasized.

Internal changes

Recently, Zelenskyi has tried to ensure that the Ukrainian military machine is functioning properly with recent reshuffles of senior government officials. Another of his goals is the fight against corruption in the post-Soviet society, where institutions are riddled with this scourge in order to be able to join the European Union.

He explained that he needed to know how weapons, provisions, food and even clothes were delivered to the front – and that he was not getting there. “On the one hand, this is not the president’s business, but on the other hand, I can trust those who not only gave me information, but also told me personally,” he said.

The static lines of hostilities did not cause pressure on the part of Ukraine’s allies to conclude a peace agreement with Russia. “I don’t feel it yet,” Zelenskyi said, but added that “some voices are always heard.”

Ukraine wants to “promote the peace formula and involve as many countries as possible in order to politically isolate Russia,” he said.

The war also made it impossible to hold presidential elections in Ukraine, which were originally scheduled for March in accordance with the Constitution, Zelenskyy recalled.

Although the president has declared his readiness to hold elections, the majority of Ukrainians are not ready, considering such a vote “dangerous and senseless” while war is raging around them.

With a budget that calls for 22% of the country’s GDP to be spent on defense and national security, Ukraine’s economy is being restructured around a war with no end in sight, as is the daily life of its citizens.

This raised another question: how long can Zelensky himself manage as the leader of a country in a state of war? There are no words to describe how difficult the task is, he says, but he also can’t imagine leaving the position. “Honestly, you can’t do that. It would be very unfair, wrong and, of course, demotivating,” Zelensky said in an interview with AP.

Source: News.ro