Zalushnyj asks for patience with counter-offensive: “It’s not a show”
The Ukrainian commander-in-chief, Valeriy Zalushnyi, has called for patience during the ongoing counter-offensive to liberate the areas occupied by Russian troops. “This isn’t a show for the whole world to watch and bet on,” he told the Washington Post in an interview published Friday. Every day and every meter would be fought with blood.
At the same time, Zalushny complained that the lack of air support was slowing down the Ukrainian advance. “Many people die every day – many. And that’s only because no decision was made,” said the general, referring to the Western fighter jets that have not yet been delivered. There are more NATO jets in the air on Ukraine’s western borders than the Ukrainian army has at its disposal. “Why can’t we have at least a third of them here?” Zalushnyj asked. Otherwise, the Russian air superiority could not be broken.
The reported losses of western tanks in the first days of the Ukrainian offensive are normal, he said. “We didn’t get the Leopard tanks for parades or for photos of politicians and stars,” he said. They are there for the war effort. “And a leopard on the battlefield is not a leopard but a target,” the Commander-in-Chief underscored. According to Western media reports, the Ukrainian troops lost up to a fifth of the western armor supplied in the first days of their counter-offensive.
The recent mutiny of the Russian Wagner mercenaries, on the other hand, had had no effect on what was happening at the front, since they had not been on the front line since the beginning of June. “We didn’t feel that their defense weakened anywhere or in any way,” Zalushnyj underlined.