Vladimir Zelensky said that a break in hostilities would give Putin an advantage. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Ukraine's president rejected Emmanuel Macron's call for a truce with Russia during this summer's Olympics and said the West had put his country in a “senseless situation.”
Vladimir Zelensky rejected the plan on Friday President of France about a break in hostilities during the Games in Paris. and said such a move would give Moscow “an advantage” by giving it time to move troops and artillery.
He told AFP that Ukraine and its Western allies have “the same values” but are often “different”. opinions”, in particular on how to end the conflict.
“We are in an absurd situation where the West is afraid that Russia will lose the war. And it doesn’t want Ukraine to lose it,” Zelensky said.
“Everyone wants to find some kind of model so that the war ends faster,” he said, answering a question about the possibility of a scenario for ending the war. military actions similar to those that established the dividing line on the Korean Peninsula.
Smoke rises on Friday over Volchansk in the Kharkov region after Russian bombing Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Zelensky on Friday warned that Putin could step up his offensive and said Kyiv would only accept a “just peace”, despite Western calls for a quick solution.
The Ukrainian president also repeated calls for allies to send more air defense systems. and fighter jets and said Russia's “biggest advantage” was preventing Ukraine from using weapons donated by the West to strike Russian territory.
As the mobilization law came into force on Saturday, he acknowledged problems with personnel provision and “morale” in the Ukrainian ranks, which throughout the third year of the war were often outnumbered and outgunned.
Zelensky and Macron in May last year Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Although Russian troops have gradually advanced in recent months, they have made great gains along the north-eastern border. in the offensive that began on May 10 in the Kharkiv region.
Zelensky said that the situation in the Kharkiv region, where thousands of people were forced to leave their homes, was “controlled” but “not stabilized.”
Russian troops have advanced six miles since moving. units crossed the border last week – this is the largest result in a year and a half.
Mr Zelensky said Putin's troops penetrated between five and 10 kilometers along the north-eastern border before being stopped by Ukrainian troops.
Russia’s offensive “may consist of several waves. There was the first wave in the Kharkov region,” he said.
He downplayed Russia's advances but added: “We have to be sober and understand that they are moving deeper into our territory.” . Not the other way around. And this is still their advantage.”
He insisted that Ukraine would hold its defensive lines and stop any major Russian adversary. breakthrough.
“Nobody is going to give up,” said Mr Zelensky, who has been the face of Ukraine’s resistance against Russia since the invasion began in February 2022.
Mr Zelensky also called on China and countries in the developing world to attend a peace summit with dozens of leaders in neutral Switzerland next month, to which Russia was not invited.
He said global players such as China “have influence on Russia. And the more such countries we have on our side, on the side of ending the war, I would say, the more Russia will have to move and be reckoned with.”
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