Zelenskyy says Ukraine needs more time for counter-offensive

11/05/2023

2 minute read

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy interviewed by Yomiuri Shimbun on a train on his way from Kherson to Kyiv on 23 March 2023. He said, “Russia must leave our territory.” Photo: Yomiuri Shimbun, yomiuri.co.jp

Zelenskyy says Ukraine needs more time for counter-offensive

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country needs more time to launch a much-anticipated counter-offensive against Russian forces as its military awaits the delivery of promised military aid, he said in an interview for public broadcasters who are members of Eurovision News in Kyiv, BBC reports Zelenskyy says that Ukrainian combat brigades, some of which were trained by Nato countries, are "ready" but still need "some things,"

including armored vehicles that were "arriving in batches."

"With [what we have] we can go forward and, I think, be successful," he said. "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."

Zelenskyy has vowed to give Russia an "unpleasant surprise" when Ukraine's counteroffensive begins. A Ukrainian fightback has been expected for months. In recent weeks, Ukrainian authorities tried to lower expectations of an anticipated Ukrainian breakthrough. A senior government official told BBC that 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.