Troops “move forward”
Selenskyj praises the accuracy of his shooters
9/2/2023 4:23 p.m
President Zelenskyy is satisfied with the work of his army, which is defending Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Sumy to the best of its ability. Although the United States only recently attested “remarkable progress” to the Ukrainian armed forces, Zelenskyy would like to see more recognition from Washington.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sees progress in the armed forces’ counteroffensive to liberate the territories occupied by Russia. “The Ukrainian armed forces are moving forward. Despite everything and despite what everyone is saying, we are making progress and that is the most important thing. We are on the move,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram. Recently, Ukraine had repeatedly criticized the fact that Western experts spoke of a sluggish progress of the offensive without the expected breakthroughs on the front line. Selenskyj had also declared that the offensive was not a Hollywood film.
The United States, on the other hand, only announced on Friday that it was observing the successes of the Ukrainian military. “We have noted some notable advances by Ukraine’s armed forces over the past 72 hours,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council. This was “in the southern line of advance out of the Zaporizhia area”. In addition, Ukraine has had some successes against Russia’s second line of defense.
Zelenskyy said on X (formerly Twitter) that he was proud of the courage and accuracy of the Ukrainian shooters. He also published photos of explosions during operations in the war zone. He was grateful to the soldiers of the 47th artillery brigade for the effective defense of “our country” in the Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Sumy regions and for “their strength in our northern regions”.
Ukraine has been defending itself with Western help for more than a year and a half against the Russian invasion that Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin launched on February 24, 2022. In a counter-offensive that has been going on for weeks, the armed forces want to completely liberate the areas of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Cherson, some of which are occupied by Russian troops. Kiev also wants to take back the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in violation of international law in 2014.