KBarely two and a half months after Russian troops invaded, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for even more pressure from the international community on Moscow. “With each day of war, global threats increase, there is a new opportunity for Russia to provoke instability in other parts of the world, not only here in Europe,” Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Friday evening. Meanwhile, however, men and women are dying in Ukraine “who are doing their best so that all people can live freely. So much more pressure on Russia is needed.”
Selenskyj criticizes the refusal to help
Despite the clear situation, there are countries in which sanctions against Moscow are being withheld or aid for Ukraine is being blocked, Zelenskyy criticized. However, he did not specifically name a country. It is now known that Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports and the war as a whole have provoked a major food crisis. “And Russian officials are also openly threatening the world that there will be starvation in dozens of countries.”
“In fact, today nobody can predict how long this war will last,” said Zelenskyy. “But we are doing everything to liberate our country quickly. To do this, Ukraine needs help from its partners, “from European countries, from countries all over the free world”. So far, Russia has lost 200 military aircraft, more than 3,000 tanks and other armored vehicles, and almost 27,000 soldiers.
The head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service, on the other hand, predicted in an extremely optimistic sounding prognosis that the war would end with a Russian defeat by the end of the year. There will be a turnaround on the fronts by mid-August at the latest, Major General Kyrylo Budanov told the British broadcaster Sky News. “The turning point will come in the second half of August.” By the end of the year, Ukraine will regain control of all its territories, including the Crimean peninsula. Budanov also expected major changes in the Kremlin. In his view, a coup against Russian President Vladimir Putin is already underway. He did not provide evidence for his claims.
Kiev’s presidential adviser: Russia’s army and economy are shaking
According to Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych, Russia’s army and economy are on shaky ground. According to the Unian agency, Arestovych said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s image of the “invincible second-largest army in the world” had already turned out to be “fake”. The reality of the past few weeks has shown a real picture of the combat capability of the Russian army: “It threatened to dismantle NATO, but has already failed at two villages in the Sumy region (in north-eastern Ukraine).”
At the same time, Selenskyj’s advisor predicted what he believed to be the imminent collapse of the Russian economy in the summer. “Any attempt to negotiate with the West will fail,” said Arestovych. This will make itself felt in July or August at the latest in the event of a possible mobilization. He questioned whether the Russian economy could withstand this pressure. “There can be no healthy economy in a country where everything else is rotten.”
Kyiv sees “third phase” of war
The Ukrainian leadership sees the beginning of the “third phase” of the Russian war of aggression and a protracted struggle associated with it. “Phase one” was an attempt to overrun Ukraine “in a few days,” said Viktor Andrusyw, adviser in the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior, on television on Saturday night. In the second phase, the Ukrainian forces were to be encircled and crushed in several boilers. “And they didn’t manage that either.”