FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Ukraine's counteroffensive has not yet begun because Kiev still lacks enough weapons and ammunition to drive out the Russians and retake the occupied territories.
The deputy head of the president's office and his chief adviser on foreign affairs, Dr Ihor Zhovkva, said the army needed more reinforcements to begin the long-awaited operation, which was initially billed as a spring offensive but will now take place in summer.
"I am working on the diplomatic front and my task is more weapons, more support, more ammunition. But if you want to launch a successful counteroffensive, you need everything at your disposal, including artillery, armor and tanks, so we probably don't have enough," he said.
Moscow has launched a relentless air assault on Kiev and other cities in recent weeks, but President Zelensky spent most of last month abroad in a frantic global effort to bolster the capital's air defenses and ensure more weapons for the counterattack.
He visited ten countries and held more than 60 meetings, including three with Rishi Sunak. Zhovkva believes Russia is trying to deter Ukraine from attacking by bombing the capital, which has suffered 24 attacks in the past month, including more than 400 Iranian Shaheed drones and 114 cruise missiles, estimated by the Kyiv Post to have cost $1.7 . billion.
He criticized the European Union for allowing Russia to still benefit from its energy resources, allowing it to buy more missiles, which in turn deplete Ukraine's stockpile of defensive weapons.
" I'm sorry, but the European countries are still very slow and do not do enough with the sanctions. Russia can still make a lot of money trading its energy resources, including gas, earning dollars and euros, and every euro and dollar is spent on producing more missiles and artillery to kill more Ukrainians. It is time again for the EU and the rest of the world to think about whether they are doing enough with sanctions ," he said.
The Ukrainian leadership has presented an inconsistent picture recently of the state of its military readiness, perhaps as a deliberate attempt to confuse Moscow.
Lini një Përgjigje