The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has acknowledged that the Israel-Hamas conflict is diverting attention from the war in Ukraine.
He said that Russia’s goal was to invade Ukraine, and they did so in February 2022.
He said that the fighting in Ukraine isn’t stuck, even though the country’s top military leader recently said that it is.
Ukraine’s attempt to fight back in the south hasn’t been very successful yet.
This has made Kyiv’s Western allies worried that they might get tired of supporting Ukraine in war. Some countries are starting to hesitate in giving Ukraine advanced weapons and money.
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The conflict in Ukraine is getting worse as Russia is strengthening their defenses and making it harder for opponents to break through.
During a briefing in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Zelensky explained that the war in the Middle East is diverting attention from Ukraine. He made this statement while talking to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
He said Russia wanted this attention to be reduced, but emphasized that we have the ability to control everything.
MrZelensky was also questioned about what Ukraine’s top military commander, Valery Zaluzhny, said this week about the war entering a “positional” or static phase. Zaluzhny believes that this phase would be advantageous to Moscow because it would give them an opportunity to strengthen their military forces again.
“Everyone is getting tired and there are different opinions,” Mr Zelensky said. He also mentioned that this situation is not a stalemate.
He said that Russia has control of the skies and Ukraine urgently needs F-16 warplanes and advanced anti-aircraft defenses from the US to improve the situation.
The Ukrainian leader said that last year there was a lot of talk about a situation where no progress was being made on the large battlefield in Ukraine. However, he mentioned that Kyiv was able to achieve significant military victories in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the southern Kherson region afterwards.
Mr Zelensky said that the reports in the media about him feeling more pressure to talk with Russia are not true.
Today, none of our partners in the EU, US, and other countries are forcing us to have talks with Russia and give them something in return. This won’t happen.
Moscow responded to Mr. Zaluzhny’s statement on Thursday. The spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the current situation on the battlefield is not a “stalemate”.
“According to Dmitry Peskov, all the objectives of the war need to be accomplished. He also mentioned that Ukraine should understand that discussing the possibility of the Kyiv government winning the war is unreasonable. ”
President Putin has said many times that Ukraine’s counter-attack has not been successful, and his Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu recently stated that Kyiv is losing the war even though they are receiving new weapons from Nato allies.
The UK defense intelligence recently reported that Russia may have lost about 200 tanks and other armored vehicles while attacking Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine.
It is possible that Russia has had many soldiers hurt or killed in the town since October 2023.
The report stated that Russia’s leaders are still willing to accept many people getting hurt or killed in order to gain small amounts of land.
Moscow has been attempting to make progress in eastern and north-eastern Ukraine recently, but Ukraine’s military says they have successfully defended against all the attacks.
The statements made by both sides have not been checked to confirm if they are true or not.