Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country’s military needs more time to prepare an anticipated counteroffensive aimed at pushing back Russian occupying forces and opening a new chapter in the war more than 14 months after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion.
Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast Thursday by the BBC that it would be “unacceptable” to launch the assault now because too many lives would be lost.
“With (what we have) we can go forward and be successful,” Zelenskyy said in the interview, according to the BBC. “But we’d lose a lot of people. I think that’s unacceptable,” he was quoted as saying. The interview was reportedly carried out in Kyiv with public service broadcasters who are members of Eurovision News, including the BBC.
“So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time,” Zelenskyy was quoted as saying.
A Ukrainian fightback against Russia’s invasion has been expected for weeks. Ukraine is receiving advanced Western weapons, including tanks and air defences, and Western training for its troops as it gears up for an expected assault.While a counterpunch is possible as the weather in Ukraine improves, there has been no word on when it might happen. Zelenskyy’s remarks could be a red herring to keep the Russians guessing, and ammunition supply difficulties faced by both sides have added more uncertainty.
A claim by the Ukrainian military on Wednesday that it had advanced up to two kilometres (1.2 miles) around the hotly contested eastern city of Bakhmut brought speculation that the counteroffensive was already underway.
But Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesman for Ukraine’s Operational Command East, told The Associated Press that the attack was not the “grand counteroffensive, but it’s a harbinger showing that there will be more such attacks in the future.”
The Kremlin’s forces are deeply entrenched in eastern areas of Ukraine with layered defensive lines reportedly up to 20 kilometres (12 miles) deep. Kyiv’s counteroffensive would likely face minefields, anti-tank ditches and other obstacles.