Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Ukraine will have to withdraw "in small steps" from the battlefield with Russia if it does not receive military aid from the United States. "If there is no American support, it means that we have no air defense, no Patriot missiles, no devices for electronic warfare or 155-millimeter artillery rounds," Zelensky listed in an interview in The Washington Post newspaper.
"It means that we will retreat, we will withdraw, step by step, in small steps," said Zelensky, who has called on the US Congress to unblock the approval of the military aid package valued at 60 billion dollars. "This delay is costly for Ukraine," stressed the Ukrainian leader.
"The army has been unable to plan future operations," said Zelensky, who speaks openly of "very hard-pressed" Ukrainian forces that may have to withdraw to secure their front lines and conserve ammunition. "If you need 8,000 shells a day to defend the front line, but you only have 2,000, you have to do less," Zelensky acknowledged.
"How? Well, backing down. Making the first line shorter. But, if it is broken, the Russians could access the big cities," warned the president of Ukraine, who wanted to send a message of optimism after the Russian capture from Avdíyivka in February.
"We have stabilized the situation thanks to the intelligent measures of our army," Zelensky said. "If the front remains stable, Ukraine can arm and deploy new brigades in the rear to carry out a new counteroffensive at the end of this year," the Ukrainian president said. "If we do not take steps forward to prepare another counteroffensive, Russia will. This is what we have learned in this war: if you do not take the initiative, Russia will," Zelensky concluded.
