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.
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
RSS