The Ukrainian military is limited in its counteroffensive by a lack of weapons, especially fighter jets, Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny said in an interview with the Washington Post published on Friday.

“It annoys me,” he says of Westerners complaining about Kyiv’s slow progress against the Russians, when he would like them to deliver weapons faster.

To compete with Russia’s air force, Ukraine needs the promised F-16 fighters as soon as possible, the general insists, quoted by AFP.

“We don’t need 120 planes. I’m not going to threaten the entire planet. A small amount will do,” he continued in the American daily. “But they are necessary, there is no other solution.”

He also bemoans the lack of artillery in the face of a barrage of Russian fire.

Although Valery Zaluzhny says he is in constant contact with his Western partners, such as US Chief of Staff Mark Milley, he regrets that they are not the decision-makers.

“Although no decisions are being made, it is clear that many people are dying every day, and in large numbers. Simply because decisions are not made immediately,” he told the Washington Post.

“We are giving them all the help we can,” Mark Milley told reporters on Friday. Sending F-16 or ATACMS tactical missiles to Ukraine “is on the table, but no decision has been made yet,” he added.

According to him, the counteroffensive “is going slower than I expected,” but “that’s war,” and “it doesn’t surprise me at all.”

However, the Ukrainian army “advances steadily”, “500, 1,000, 2,000 meters a day, something like that,” said the chief of the US General Staff.

General Mark Milley. Photo: Kevin Deitch/Getty Images/Profimedia Images

Ukrainian officials have widely reported progress on all fronts

Ukrainian troops are advancing in all directions of the counteroffensive against the Russian occupation forces, a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Defense said on Friday, citing Reuters.

Since the counteroffensive began this month, Ukraine says it has taken control of several villages in the southeast, although Russia still holds parts of Ukrainian territory in the east, south and southeast.

“If we are talking about the entire front line, both in the east and in the south, then we have taken a strategic initiative and are advancing in all directions,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Ukrainian state television.

Zelensky calls for strengthening the front in the north of the country

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered army commanders to strengthen the northern military sector after the leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner arrived in Belarus, where he could set up a base, Reuters and Agerpres reported on Friday.

The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhnyi, and the Commander of the Northern Military Sector, Serhii Nayev, were instructed to implement a number of measures to strengthen this direction, Zelenskyi said in Telegram.