Ukraine to amass ‘million-strong army’ to recapture territories taken by Russia – Defence minister
To recapture the southern part of the nation from Russian occupiers, Ukraine claims it would build a “million-strong army” armed with NATO weapons.
Russia’s war on Ukraine is already in its fifth month, and Russia has already seized territory in the country’s south and east.
Oleksii Reznikov stated just hours after a Sunday attack on a building of flats left at least 18 dead and more than 20 people believed to be buried under the rubble that retaking the districts around the Black Sea coast was essential to the nation’s economy.
At the site of the five-story building in Chasiv Yar, close to the city of Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region that has been the focus of a Russian offensive, rescuers are still searching for survivors.
In his interview with The Times newspaper, Reznikov praised the UK for being “key” in the transition from providing Ukraine with Soviet-era weapons to Nato-standard air defence systems and ammunition.
He said weapons deliveries needed to go faster.
“We need more, quickly, to save the lives of our soldiers. Each day we’re waiting for howitzers, we can lose a hundred soldiers,” he said.
“We have approximately 700,000 in the armed forces and when you add the national guard, police, border guard, we are around a million strong,” the defence minister said.
Reznikov said an offensive to recapture some of the territory taken by Russia was “politically very necessary”.
It’s also economically important, not least to try to resume exports of Ukrainian grain via Black Sea ports.
Much of Ukraine’s military effort and resources are already being consumed by fierce fighting in the Donbas with Ukraine losing more than half their troops .
But Ukraine’s confidence has been boosted by the supply of more advanced long-range artillery systems.