Ukraine Crisis: As Western Arms Pour Into Ukraine, Zelensky Promises Victory

As Western Arms Pour Into Ukraine, Zelensky Promises Victory.
Zelensky is confident that his country will defeat Russia – but that victory would come “much faster” if Western allies continue to support his country with arms.

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EKO HOT BLOG reports that President Volodymyr Zelensky, bolstered by an influx of heavy weapons from Western nations, expressed increasing confidence on Saturday that Ukraine was prepared to defeat Russian forces in what is expected to be a long and brutal battle for control of the eastern industrial heartland.

“We will be able to show the occupiers that the day when they will be forced to leave Ukraine is approaching,” Mr. Zelensky said in an overnight address to the nation.

The statement seemed to mark a decisive shift for Mr. Zelensky, who has spent months begging and shaming allies around the world to provide Ukraine with longer-range, heavy weapons to repel Russian forces as they assault the east in the latest offensive in the two-month-old war.

At a news conference on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said that the American secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, and the defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, planned to visit Kyiv, the capital, on Sunday to discuss the “military assistance we need.”

They would be the highest-ranking American officials to visit since the invasion began. The Pentagon and the State Department declined to comment.

World leaders “should not come to us with empty hands, not just presents and cakes,” Mr. Zelensky said, but with “specific weapons.”

Military analysts said that the tanks, howitzers, deadly drones, armoured vehicles and mountains of ammunition pouring into Ukraine from Western allies have been a significant factor in helping the country’s troops fend off the larger and better-equipped Russian military.

Despite increased fighting, Russian forces have made “no major gains” in the past 24 hours, as Ukrainian counterattacks continue to hinder their efforts, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Saturday, in its latest assessment of the war.

The ministry said that, despite Russia’s claim that it had conquered the heavily battered southern port of Mariupol, where the last remaining Ukrainian fighters have holed up in a steel plant with civilians, “heavy fighting” continued to frustrate Russian attempts to capture the city, slowing their progress into the Donbas region.

At Saturday’s news conference, Mr. Zelensky reiterated his willingness to meet directly with Mr. Putin, saying while “I don’t want” to meet with him, “I have to see the president” in order to end the war.

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He also appealed to the Russian people, saying, “Living in the Russian Federation is like virtual reality, like a video game. Come back to the world. It’s more beautiful and more truthful.”

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Benard Joseph

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