Ukrainian President Voldymr Zelensky said in an interview aired on Sunday that the Ukrainian counteroffensive started later than he wanted due to a lack of weapons and training.
“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, still, more, that the training missions were held outside Ukraine,” Zelensky told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
During the lead-up to the counteroffensive, which was launched in early June, Ukrainian troops were being trained inside NATO countries. Zelensky said that the delay allowed Russia to lay more minefields, which Ukrainian forces have struggled to get through.
“And because we started it a bit later on it can be said and it will be shared truth understood by all of the experts that it provided Russia with time to mine all of our land and build several lines of defense,” he said.
Despite the massive amount of weapons and ammunition the US and its allies have poured into Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Western officials did not believe Ukraine had enough to dislodge Russian forces. Ukraine’s Western backers hoped the Ukrainians would have been able to break through, but the offensive is faltering.
Zelensky said the counteroffensive has been at a “slower pace” due to Russia’s minefields and other defenses. He said Kyiv doesn’t “want to lose our people, our personnel.”
US officials speaking to the media have blamed Ukraine’s lack of success on its tactics, complaining Ukrainian soldiers are being too cautious and aren’t using the “combined arms” training they learned from NATO that integrates infantry, artillery, and armor. But the US and its NATO allies would never launch such an offensive without air superiority. When Ukraine did launch a major attack with armored vehicles in the first weeks of the counteroffensive, it resulted in heavy losses.
And yet, knowing all this Zelensky allowed the attacks to take place, because far from being the leader of a sovereign nation, he is the tool of a US vassal state.
In this case the suzerain claimed that the lack of weapons could be overcome by Ukrainian derring do. In reality, the US knew that Ukraine could not succeed but simply did not care, as long as they bled Russia.
In fact, the US knows how escalatory an actual Ukrainian breakthrough would be, so they simply want to use the Ukrainians as cannon fodder to stymie Russia and weaken Russia’s military capacity, without ever really winning. The moral abyss into which the US government has fallen is as deep as it is black.
Suzerain, I had to look that one up. Yes indeed, the USA has become a feudal lord which makes all of us peasants with no agency whatsoever in determining whether or not we go to war. This is why peace will only come from the rest of the world banding together, isolating the USA, and dumping the petrodollar.
The rest of Europe is banning together against Russia and China has “pivoted” to re-engage with the US.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/one-reason-china-is-willing-to-engage-again-its-troubled-economy/
Tankies are having a bad month!
“…leader of a sovereign nation…”
ok man i will compose a heart-wrenching patriotic ballad from your simple sentence = “doo-doo-doo-doot-doo-dee-doot-doo”
wait, what?
edit = at some point every single one of us is freakin Peter Frampton
Seems like the Ukes are winning and the Russians are getting nervous!
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-elite-unit-vdv-bakhmut-counteroffensive-mutiny-fears-document-letter-1815164
The Ukrainians have decided to defend their sovereign country and the US/NATO is helping. That’s what is going on. Now, if the Ukes bleed the Russians and remove them as a threat to the rest of Europe, so be it! The Russians should have gamed that out but hubris got in the way.
Slava Ukraini!
The most incredible thing is, it isn’t making Russia weaker. The imperial maggots due to their ignarrogance are making Russia stronger in all aspects.
Of course you lack arms when you sell half of them that you receive in black market to the highest bidder…!
What?
I do believe those who have been doubting the veracity of the reporting of the West’s inability to keep Ukraine supplied because they have better logistics and a huge manufacturing base have been proven wrong by the comedian himself.
It has only been a very few here but…..lol.
Maybe those tank numbers are true despite the silly pushback from those that troll?
Zelensky leaves out the fact that they did start the counteroffensive while still lacking weapons. And all for the purpose of getting more weapons. And those weapons will still lack the firepower necessary to “defeat” Russia. The constant admitting by the US/NATO of trying to avoid a direct war with Russia just doesn’t seem to matter to him.
hey i totally would have totally kicked your ass totally except i wasn’t totally ready.
maybe next time!
Ah.
So THAT’S what delayed the much-vaunted counteroffensive.
How did you expect the Russians to behave? This is WAR, ZelBoy, one that you refuse to negotiate an end to.
First lack of weapons, then came lack of water and power; next is starvation.If only they didn’t listen to the western devils.
Seems to me almost everyone here has gone aa bit off the rails of thoughtful discussion. As we debate back and forth about who should do what when and why, the Rada still stands. WHY…..??? Is it because Russia does not have the ability to take it down…????? If I had been running the war, it would have been down the first moment that the firepower was NOT needed more some place for pressing tactical use. So, to what should we attribute the presumed fact that it is still up and standing as the home of the independent state of Ukraine…????????? It is my view that it is still up is that Putin has been and still is trying to have a light touch doing his SMO or whatever he insists it be named. Does anyone here have another explanation of Russia allowing this edifice of Ukraine independent statehood and governance still stand?
I don’t see how you can go a little bit off the rails. You’re either on it or off it. This is something completely binary.
Yes, Russia is still handling this clean up operation with soft gloves because it simply isn’t beneficial to go in hard. This is what imperial filth wants. They want horrific destruction with millions of civilian casualties to bring Russia down to their degenerate level. It isn’t just ethical reasons. It is economic as well. Everything in Ukraine was built by the USSR and there is no reason to destroy any of it. It’s not a war because there simply can’t be a war between Russia and Ukraine. We’re the same people. One civilization. This is basically a hostage situation. The degenerate rapist Uncle Shame is holding Ukraine hostage.