President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky (pictured above) said on Wednesday that his troops need alot more time to prepare for the upcoming counter offensive and will need to win the war before the US Presidential elections in November.
Zelensky was speaking to European Media adding that he believes in Ukraine’s victory over Russia before the next US presidential election.
“We can start advancing and make progress. However, we will lose a lot of people this way. I find this unacceptable. Therefore, we need to wait. We still need a little more time,” said Zelensky said.
Zelenskyy said that the Ukrainian military is fully prepared for hostilities. At the same time, according to him, they are experiencing a shortage of “some things”, including Western armored vehicles.
Analysts argue that Ukraine Needs More than a U$30 Billion Arsenal to Strike Back. The counteroffensive needs surprise and ‘combined arms’ approach.
This time the critical element of surprise could prove harder to achieve against a larger and better prepared Russian military. And to succeed, Ukraine will need to execute a complex so-called combined arms operation, without the advantage of air superiority, for which few militaries in the world have the necessary training.
The modern concept of combined arms began in World War I, when commanders used combinations of creeping artillery barrages, air support, tanks and infantry to break the stalemate of trench warfare.
When asked about the possible loss of US support in the event of the defeat of President Joe Biden, President Zelensky replied that he believes in victory before that time.
“Who knows where we’ll be? I believe that we will win by then,” he said.
The US elections are scheduled to take place on November 5, 2024.
It is expected that the Ukrainian counteroffensive will begin in the near future.
On May 9, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Kyiv had received the equipment and weapons necessary for the counteroffensive.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has not yet approved a plan of military action.
Kyiv Being Pushed to negotiating table on Moscow’s terms
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said that they are trying to persuade the Ukrainian side to negotiate with Russia on Moscow’s terms.
According to him, such proposals come from different countries in large numbers. He did not specify which states he is talking about.
“Now there is just such an escalation of the situation in order to quickly put us at the negotiating table on Russia’s terms. There is a huge campaign going on right now. There are a lot of proposals from different countries,” Danilov said.
Oleksiy Danilov believes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky can decide to negotiate with Russia “only on the terms of our country.”
“No one is going to give up national interests, no matter how much representatives of some countries would like it,” he noted.
In November 2022, Volodymyr Zelensky presented a plan for the peaceful settlement of the military conflict.
Among the points of the plan are the release of all prisoners, the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the withdrawal of Russian troops and the cessation of hostilities.
The Kremlin called these demands a refusal to negotiate.
