Israel-Gaza conflict diverts attention from Ukraine – Zelensky

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has said that the war between Israel and Gaza is distracting attention from the conflict in Ukraine.

He said that Russia had one of the goals of invading Ukraine completely in February 2022.

He said that the fighting in Ukraine was not at a point where neither side was making progress, even though the country’s highest military leader recently said it was.

Ukraine’s attack in the southern region has not been very successful up until now.

This has made some of Kyiv’s Western allies worried about getting tired of war, with some suggesting that some countries might be less willing to keep providing Ukraine with advanced weapons and money.

On Saturday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov confirmed that soldiers from the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade “Zakarpattia (Transcarpathia)” were killed. He ordered a thorough investigation into what he called a “tragedy”.

He didn’t mention the number of soldiers who died in the southern Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine. Ukraine’s military stated that it was due to a Russian missile attack on Friday.

According to news in Ukraine and Russian military bloggers, over 20 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in a village near the front lines while attending an award ceremony.

Ukraine’s military said that on Saturday they were able to damage the sea and port facilities of a shipbuilding plant located in Crimea. Crimea is a southern peninsula that Russia took control of in 2014 without permission.

Russia’s defense ministry said that out of the 15 missiles fired by Ukraine on a plant in the city of Kerch in eastern Crimea, 13 were stopped and not hit their target, but a Russian ship was damaged.

During a meeting in Kyiv, President Zelensky said that the ongoing Middle East conflict is diverting attention away from Ukraine.

He said Russia wanted to make this focus less strong, but emphasized that we have the ability to handle everything.

Mr Zelensky was asked to give his thoughts on the recent statement made by Ukraine’s top military commander, Valery Zaluzhny. According to Zaluzhny, the war is transitioning into a static stage, which means it is becoming more stationary. This could be advantageous for Moscow as it would give them the opportunity to strengthen their military forces again.

“Everyone is getting exhausted and there are different views,” Mr. Zelensky responded, saying, “But this is not a deadlock. ”

He said that Russia has control over the skies and Ukraine needs F-16 warplanes and better anti-aircraft defenses from the US quickly to improve the situation.

The Ukrainian leader said that last year, people talked about a difficult situation in Ukraine’s battlefield. However, he mentioned that Kyiv later won important battles in the northeast region of Kharkiv and the south region of Kherson.
Mr Zelensky also denied that he was facing increasing pressure to think about discussing with Russia, as stated in the media.

Today, none of our European Union, United States, and other partner leaders are urging us to start negotiations with Russia and give away something to them. This won’t happen.

Moscow also gave its opinion on Mr. Zaluzhny’s statement on Thursday. The spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin said the current situation on the battlefield is not at a standstill.

Dmitry Peskov said that Ukraine needs to achieve all the goals set during the war. He also mentioned that it is silly to even consider the possibility of the Kyiv regime winning on the battlefield.

President Putin has said many times that Ukraine’s counter-attack did not succeed. His Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu, recently stated that Kyiv is losing the war even with new weapons from Nato allies.

In a recent report, the UK defense intelligence stated that Russia probably lost about 200 armored vehicles during their attacks on the town of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine.

It is possible that Russia has lost many soldiers near the town since October 2023.

The report said that Russia’s leaders are willing to accept a lot of people being harmed or killed in order to gain small amounts of land.

Recently, Moscow has been attempting to make progress in eastern and north-eastern Ukraine. However, Ukraine’s military claims that they have successfully defended against all the attacks.

The statements made by the two sides in the conflict have not been checked and proven to be true by a neutral party.