Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine needs ‘extra time’ before launching counter-offensive against Russia

kyiv is not yet in a position to counterattack. This is what Volodymyr Zelensky declared, Thursday, May 11, in an interview granted to the European public service media members of the EBU. The Ukrainian president believes that his army still needs time to prepare a major counter-offensive against Russian forces. “With [ce que nous avons] we can move forward and be successful. But we would lose a lot of people. I think that is unacceptable. So we have to wait. We still need a little extra time.”he says.

In recent weeks, the Ukrainian army has trained new forces and accumulated ammunition and equipment, supplied by its Western allies. But the timetable for Kiev to launch the expected counter-offensive, in order to regain ground in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk (East) as well as Kherson and Zaporijjia (South), remains an open question. The Ukrainian Minister of Defense assured at the end of April that “preparations are coming to an end”. “The equipment has been promised, prepared and partially delivered. In a broad sense, we are ready, then specified Oleksiy Reznikov. [Quand il y aura] weather [adéquate] and the decision of the commanders, we will do it.”

“Nobody can force Ukraine to give territories”

Volodymyr Zelensky, however, told the EBU that his army still needed armored vehicles. He adds that Western sanctions against Moscow do have an impact on Russian troop resources. “They always have a lot [de stocks] in their warehouses, but (…) we already see that they have reduced the number of daily bombings in certain areas”.

Ukraine’s president says he’s confident about his army’s ability “to take the initiative” to regain ground from the Russian forces and prevent the conflict from getting bogged down. He recalls that his country has already “proposed a plan for peace”excluding ceding the occupied territories to Moscow, and insists that “nobody can force Ukraine to give territories”. Volodymyr Zelensky then asks: “Why would a country agree to give its territories to Putin?”