(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine’s leader dialed up his criticism of western partners for their lagging support, while claiming that his troops’ incursion into Russia which began last month has slowed Moscow’s offensives elsewhere along the frontline.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy intends to present his “victory plan” to US President Joe Biden during their meeting later this month, he told a conference in Kyiv organized by businessman Victor Pinchuk. Zelenskiy described it as a blueprint to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek peace.
“The United States can help with this,” Zelenskiy said. “If we and our key partner both want to win.”
Zelenskiy said that Russia’s attempts to drive Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk region has seen no significant progress and that Ukraine’s offensive in the Kursk area has helped to slow down Russian operations in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.
The president also said that Russia’s artillery advantage near the strategically important eastern town of Pokrovsk has decreased from 12 shells for every one fired by Ukraine to 2.5.
Russia began a counteroffensive in the Kursk region this week. Zelenskiy said that Russia has deployed 40,000 Russian troops to Kursk including from the Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions, with plans to boost that force to as many as 70,000. The claims couldn’t be independently verified.
While Zelenskiy defended the incursion into Russia, he lashed out at Ukraine’s foreign allies for delays in support and long deliberations on aid which he said prevent Kyiv from equipping new brigades. He lamented the lack of advanced air defense capabilities, saying that enough of the anti-air missile systems existed worldwide.
The Ukrainian president also made pointed comments about NATO countries failing to down Russian drones veering into their airspace while Ukraine faced down major barrages from Russia. A Russian drone crashed in Latvia earlier this week, with similar cases earlier reported by Poland and Romania, as well as non-NATO member Moldova and even Russia’s ally Belarus, which downed a drone earlier this month.
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