Zelenskyy: foreign aid delays are making life ‘very difficult’ on the front line
Delays in weapons deliveries from Western allies to Ukraine are opening a door for Russian battlefield advances, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, making the fight “very difficult” along parts of the front line where the Kremlin’s forces captured a strategic city last weekend ahead of the war’s second anniversary.
Zelenskyy and other officials have often expressed frustration at the slowness of promised aid deliveries, especially since signs of war fatigue have emerged. European countries are struggling to find enough stocks to send to Kyiv, and U.S. help worth $60 billion is stalled over political differences. That appears to be playing into the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Even so, more help is heading Ukraine’s way, as Sweden announced Tuesday its biggest aid package so far and Canada said it was expediting the delivery of more than 800 drones.
Zelenskyy, in his daily video address late Monday, said Russia has built up troops at some points along the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line, apparently aiming to pounce on any perceived defensive weaknesses.
“They (the Russians) are taking advantage of delays in aid to Ukraine,” he said after visiting the command post in the area of Kupiansk, in the northeastern Kharkiv region, on Monday.
He said Ukrainian troops keenly felt a shortage of artillery, air defense systems and long-range weapons.
Ukrainian forces withdrew from the strategic eastern city of Avdiivka during the weekend, where they had battled a fierce Russian assault for four months despite being heavily outnumbered and outgunned.
Putin on Tuesday congratulated his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on capturing Avdiivka and urged him to press Russia’s advantage.
Shoigu said the military launched up to 460 strikes on Avdiivka per day, equivalent to about 200 metric tons of explosives. “We got the enemy in such a state that it was forced to flee the unbearable conditions,” Shoigu said.
But Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said that while the situation on the battlefield is hard, especially due to a lack of ammunition, the situation on the eastern front is not catastrophic.