Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday said that his nation’s victory “depends” on support from the West and expressed hope that the US would approve a critical package of military aid.
In a rare acknowledgement of setbacks, Zelenskiy said that 31,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed in the war and that plans for last year’s failed counteroffensive had been leaked to Russia.
He appealed to the West to boost Ukraine’s war chances at a forum marking the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Photo: Reuters
“Whether Ukraine will lose, whether it will be very difficult for us and whether there will be a large number of casualties depends on you, on our partners, on the Western world,” Zelenskiy said.
Ukraine has been weakened by an ammunition shortage, with a vital US$60 billion US aid package blocked by political wrangling in the US Congress.
Zelenskiy said that “there is hope for Congress, and I am sure that it is going to be positive.”
Ukraine has for months said that Western aid is too slow coming and that the holdups have real consequences as the war against Russia enters its third year.
Zelenskiy for the first time suggested that Russia had prior information on Ukraine’s much-anticipated, but unsuccessful counteroffensive last year.
“Action plans were on the Kremlin’s table before the counteroffensive actions began,” said the president, who this month sacked army commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny.
Zelenskiy said that Ukraine’s war losses were nevertheless much lower than Russia has claimed.
“Thirty-one thousand Ukrainian soldiers have died in this war, not 300,000 or 150,000, or whatever Putin and his lying circle are saying,” he said.
Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu in December last year said that 383,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed or injured.
The second anniversary of the war was marked around the world with moving tributes.
During a Sunday service in the Vatican, Pope Francis called for intensified efforts to find a “just and lasting peace” to the conflict.
“There have been so many victims, so many wounded, so much destruction, so much anguish and so many tears over what has become a terribly long period — the end of which we cannot yet foresee,” he said.
However, the focus in Kyiv was on shoring up Western support.
Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov earlier on Sunday said that half of Western military aid to Kyiv was delivered later than promised, causing losses.
Europe has admitted it would fall far short of a plan to deliver more than 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine by next month, instead hoping to complete the shipments by the end of the year.
Such delays meant Kyiv would “lose people, lose territories,” especially given Russia’s “air superiority,” Umerov said.
“Despite the difficult situation, our soldiers courageously hold their lines and positions,” Ukrainian Commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said on Sunday after visiting frontline command posts.
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