Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Blames Counter-Offensive On Lack of Military Supplies From West & Delayed Training

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Jul 24, 2023

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that the Collective West is not doing enough to provide Ukraine with munitions and training as the country’s much-hyped counter-offensive is sputtering along. 

“We did have plans to start it in spring. But we didn’t, because, frankly, we had not enough munitions and armaments and not enough brigades properly trained in these weapons,” Zelensky said to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria through a translator in an interview which took place on July 23, 2023. 

Zelensky was also critical of training programs designed for Ukrainians to operate advanced systems. Ukrainian authorities have also demanded that the Collective West provide American F-16 fighter jets in an expedited manner.  However, F-16 training has been “delayed”. 

The Ukrainian President observed “that the training missions were held outside Ukraine. But, still, we started. And this is important.” Zelensky believes that factors have played a key role in stalling the counter-roffensive, 

“And because we started it a bit later on, it can be said, and it will be shared truth understood by all the experts that it provided Russia with time to mine all our lands and build several lines of defense. And, definitely, they had even more time than they needed,” the Ukrainian president added.

“Because of that, they built more of those lines. And, really, they had a lot of mines in our fields. Because of that, a slower pace of our counteroffensive actions,” Zelensky noted. “We didn’t want to lose our people, our personnel. And our servicemen didn’t want to lose equipment because of that.”

In the early stages of the counteroffensive back in June, Zelensky acknowledged that there was a “slower than expected” advance. 

Zelensky added in his comments to CNN, “Yes, I do understand that it’s always better to see victory come sooner. This is what we also want. But the question is the price … of this victory. So, let us not throw people under tanks literally. Let us plan our counteroffensive as our analysts, our intelligence suggests. And some of our residential areas have been liberated already. So, I do believe in our victory.”

For Ukraine, the current clip of Western military aid is not enough, despite Western taxpayers subsidizing the Ukrainian military and government to the tune of millions. The Russo-Ukrainian War is turning into a classic war of attrition, which will see the vastly larger Russian state come out on top against the Ukrainians. No amount of military aid sent to Ukraine will change that 

If the West is serious about achieving peace and protecting Ukrainian lives, it would do everything possible to end military aid to Ukraine and mediate peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. However, a completely different ruling class will be needed for this scenario to occur. After all, our current ruling class is thoroughly addicted to war.

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