Ukraine needs new weapons and faster deliveries to deal with a “very tough” situation of constant attacks by Russian forces in the eastern Donetsk region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday.
“The situation is very tough. Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other sectors in the Donetsk region – there are constant Russian attacks. There are constant attempts to break through our defenses,” Zelenskyy said in his late-night video address.
“Russia wants the war to drag on and exhaust our forces. So we have to make time our weapon. We have to speed up events, speed up supplies and open up new weapons options for Ukraine.”
The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said earlier on Sunday that its forces repelled an attack near Blahodatne in the eastern part of the Donetsk region, while Russia’s Wagner private military group said it had seized control of the village.
A subsequent military statement did not mention Blahodatne.
Zelenskyy issued his latest call for increased arms shipments days after Germany and the United States topped a list of countries that agreed to supply modern tanks.
Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Ukraine needed the US-made ATACMS missile with a range of about 300 kilometers, which Washington has so far refused to supply. A presidential aide said talks were underway on the supply of long-range missiles and a spokesman for the Ukrainian air force spoke of negotiations on the supply of aircraft.
In its latest statements, the Zelenskyy Ukraine command pledged to ensure that “our pressure is greater than the attack capacity of the occupiers” and that meant “maintaining the defense support of our partners.”
“The enemy does not take into account its personnel and, despite the magnitude of the losses, it maintains the intensity of its attacks,” he said.
“Coping with this requires extraordinary resilience and full awareness on the part of our soldiers that by defending the Donetsk region, they are defending all of Ukraine.”
