Ukraine wanted to launch its counteroffensive earlier but it needed more weapons for that... | Tass

 5 JUL, 17:52

Zelensky says he wanted Ukraine’s counteroffensive to start 'much earlier'

According to the Ukrainian leader, the counteroffensive is slowed down because of difficulties on the battlefield

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky

© AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

NEW YORK, July 6. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said that he told US and European leaders that Ukraine wanted to launch its counteroffensive earlier but it needed more weapons for that.

• According to the Ukrainian leader, the counteroffensive is slowed down because of difficulties on the battlefield. "I wanted our counteroffensive to happen much earlier, because everyone understood that if the counteroffensive unfolds later, then a bigger part of our territory will be mined. We give our enemy the time and possibility to place more mines and prepare their defensive lines," he said in an interview with CNN.

"I’m grateful to the US as the leaders of our support, but I told them as well as the European leaders that we would like to start our counteroffensive earlier, and we need all the weapons and materiel for that. Why? Simply because if we start later, it will go slower," he noted. "The later we start, the more difficult it will be for us."

• According to Zelensky, the counteroffensive can be accelerated should Ukraine have more long-range artillery and missiles. "In some directions it will give us an opportunity to start the counteroffensive," he said. 
• "In some directions we cannot even think of starting it, as we don’t have the relevant weapons. And throwing our people to be killed by Russian long-range weapons would be simply inhumane."

The Ukrainian army has been making futile attempts to stage an offensive since the beginning of the month. Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolay Patrushev said on June 22 that since the beginning of the counteroffensive, 

• Ukraine’s losses had exceeded 13,000 troops. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian forces are not seeing success in any area."

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UkraineTrade & CooperationVladimir Zelensky