2023-11-05 03:01:00
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted this Saturday that Ukraine “is tired” following five months of counteroffensive, but insisted on his country’s victory and asked the West for more help to stop the Russian advance in the east of the country.
“Time has passed and people are tired. Everyone gets tired. It is something understandable. But we are not in a desperate situation,” she said at a press conference following meeting in kyiv with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
He acknowledged that “Russia controls the airspace,” but that is something for which there are “quick solutions” such as increasing anti-aircraft defense.
In that sense, he insisted on the importance of cooperating with the West to strengthen anti-aircraft defense and unblock the sky to “allow our boys to advance” in the counteroffensive.
unity message
Meanwhile, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, took advantage of the Day of National Unity, which commemorates the expulsion in 1612 of the Polish occupiers of Moscow, carried out by the popular militias of Kuzma Minin and Dmitri Pozharsky, to launch a message of unity and harmony national in times of war.
The president, accompanied by representatives of the country’s main religious denominations to demonstrate the country’s multinational and multidenominational cohesion, laid a wreath before the monument to the two heroes located in Moscow’s Red Square, a few meters from the Kremlin.
A little closer to the EU
For her part, the president of the European Commission brought a message of optimism to the Ukrainian capital today, highlighting that kyiv has made “excellent progress” on its path towards eventual accession to the EU.
“It is something impressive to see and we will witness it next week when the Commission presents its report on enlargement,” he said during his sixth visit to Ukraine since the start of the war.
Von der Leyen stressed that Ukraine is “profoundly reforming” in the midst of an “existential” war and cited, in particular, the reform of the judicial system and measures to reduce the power of oligarchs and combat money laundering.
“I am confident that Ukraine will be able to achieve its ambitious goal of moving to the next stage in the accession process,” he added.
The European Commission is scheduled to present next Wednesday a report on the progress made by the candidate countries to join the EU in the future, with the question of whether Brussels will recommend opening Ukraine’s accession negotiations.
Tension in Avdivka
Meanwhile, the situation on the front remains tense: the Russians persist in their attempts to surround the city of Avdivka, in the Donbas region. According to the intelligence department of the UK Ministry of Defense, “in the last three weeks, Russia has probably lost around 200 armored vehicles during its attacks on the town of Avdivka.”
For this reason, according to British intelligence, Russian forces have opted in this sector for “infantry assaults” without armor support. “Like previous Russian offensives, the assaults on Avdivka have often been characterized by advances across open terrain, resulting in heavy losses,” which London estimated at “several thousand” in the past month.
However, the Russians do not seem to give up in their efforts to close the siege around the city: according to the spokesman for the 11th Motorized Brigade of the Ukrainian Army Anton Kotsukon, the enemy would be regrouping its forces in the face of a new massive attack. “About 40,000 Russians have gathered, we have annihilated at least 5,000 and more than 120 combat machines,” he told Ukrainian television.
The American Institute for War Studies (ISW) reported that Russian forces “made confirmed advances on the northern flank of Avdivka.”
“Geolocated images (…) indicate that Russian forces advanced southwest of Krasnohirivka (4 km north of the city) towards the railway line north of Avdivka,” the ISW indicated.
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