Counteroffensive snags – Zelenskyj: War “is not a Hollywood movie”

Progress on the battlefield is “slower than desired,” Zelensky admitted in a BBC interview published Wednesday. The military advance was not easy, as 200,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory had been cleared by Russian troops. According to the government, Ukrainian forces are continuing their counter-offensive with attacks on Russian positions in the south. They had recently gained ground in other parts of the front, said Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar. In the east, the troops could withstand a large-scale Russian attack.

Kiev will not be put under pressure
Ukraine will not allow itself to be pressured in its counter-offensive, Zelenskyj continued. “With all due respect, we will advance on the battlefield as we see fit,” Deputy Defense Minister Maljar said via the Telegram short message service that the Ukrainian armed forces continued their offensive operations towards the city of Melitopol deep in the occupied territory in the south and in the direction of Berdyansk on the Sea of ​​​​Azov.

She spoke of heavy fighting in the east, particularly near the town of Lyman, which Ukrainian forces recaptured from Russian forces in October. “In the east, the defenders continue to hold back a large-scale attack by Russian troops in the direction of Lyman and Bakhmut,” Maljar said. The east remains the focus of Russian attacks. Russia is still trying to completely conquer the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Donetsk and Luhansk form the industrial region of Donbass.

Heavy losses on both sides
Ukraine says it has recaptured eight villages in the south in the past two weeks. The advance into the heavily fortified and mining areas under Russian control, while small, is the largest since November. The Kiev leadership has been preparing for months for a counter-offensive, which it hopes will mark a turning point in the war.

However, it has imposed a news freeze and independent reports are scarce. Experts say most of the Ukrainian armed forces have yet to be deployed, some of them trained and equipped by the West. It is therefore still too early to draw conclusions about the success of the offensive. But there would be heavy casualties on both sides.

Will Putin hit the red button?
Zelenskyy said in the BBC interview: “No matter how far we get in our counter-offensive, we will not agree to a frozen conflict. Because that is a hopeless development for Ukraine.” Zelensky continued, “Putin has been dangerous to Ukraine since 2014. He does not consider it very likely that he could actually use nuclear weapons. Because the Kremlin ruler fears for his life and he loves life very much. But you can’t do that with say certainty with someone so out of touch with reality, he concluded.