Officials in the US and some European countries have expressed concern that providing Kyiv with a powerful, long-range weapon system could allow Ukraine to penetrate deeper into Russian territory and escalate a three-month-long war. . Russian officials say Washington’s supply of an increasingly sophisticated system raises the possibility of a direct conflict between Washington and Moscow.
“We are not planning to attack Russia,” Mr Zelensky said in an interview with Newsmax broadcast late Tuesday. ‘We are not fighting on their territory. We have a war on our territory.
Russia has accused the Ukrainian military of attacking border areas inside Russia, while Ukraine has denied a role in such incidents. The system Kyiv currently operates could, if fired from near Russian territory, reach deep into the country. Mr Zelensky said that was not his goal.
“We are not interested in the Russian Federation,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, President Biden pledged to provide Ukraine with a guided-rocket system capable of hitting targets from a range of 48 miles. Mr Zelensky said he needed weapons with a range of at least 75 miles.
While Ukraine’s Western allies shy away from providing long-range weapons, they continue to send a variety of armament and defensive systems.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday that Berlin would send Ukraine a modern air defense system and anti-artillery radar, and Germany would support Ukraine as long as necessary.
“We will thus enable Ukraine to defend the entire large city from Russian air strikes,” Mr Scholz said in an address to the German parliament. “Putin should not and should not win this war.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday that arms supplies to Kyiv increased the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and the US, the latest rebuke by a Russian official of Western weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
In remarks carried by Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti, Mr Ryabkov said that any weapon by Washington to Ukraine “increases the risk of such development”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the weapons shipments “add fuel to the fire.”
“The United States is clearly following the line of fighting Russia for the last Ukrainian battle,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Mr Peskov also gave the Kremlin’s first reaction on Monday to the EU move to impose oil sanctions on Russia. Under the EU deal, the previous 90% of oil imports from Russia would be eliminated by the end of the year.
“These sanctions will probably have a negative impact on the entire continent – for the European people, for us and for the energy market as a whole,” Mr Peskov said. “Europeans are also not free from negative influences. They have to get through this.”
The sanctions are part of a two-pronged approach Western governments are taking in an effort to militarily repel Russian forces in the near term, imposing long-term costs on the country’s economy and political leadership.
The US goal in sending the rocket system is to boost Ukraine’s firepower against Russian forces in the eastern Donbass region, without Kyiv having to extend the war into Russian territory. The “rocket system” will enable them to more accurately hit critical targets on the battlefield in Ukraine, Mr Biden wrote in an opinion column in the New York Times on Tuesday, adding that the US is looking to oust Russian President Vladimir Putin. won’t try. ,
“Unless the United States or our allies are attacked, we will not directly engage in this conflict, either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces,” Mr Biden wrote.
The White House has not said how many rocket systems will be provided. US officials say immediate plans are to send 48 rockets and four-wheeled High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers to Ukraine.
The US and its allies are shipping vast amounts of heavy weapons to Ukraine, including lighter weapons and more advanced Western systems to complement Soviet-era weapons, which were funneled into Ukraine before the invasion began.
Mr Zelensky said in his interview that Ukraine wants long-range weapons to liberate Ukraine’s cities and ports. He said that Kyiv would not surrender any territory to Russia in exchange for peace, despite losing territory and troops daily to Moscow’s army.
“We are not ready to accept any of our territories, because our territories are our territories,” doubling down on earlier denials. Trade Land for Peace “is not something we can agree on.”
Some European officials and others, including former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, have suggested that Kyiv could achieve an armistice and reduce the economic impact of the war by allowing Russia to retain control of the occupied territory with military might. .
Mr Zelensky said Ukrainians continue to pay a heavy toll for defending the Donbass region.
“The situation in the East is very difficult,” Mr Zelensky said in the interview. “We are losing 60 to 100 soldiers every day and 500 are getting injured in the war.”
The fighting centered around Severodonetsk, the capital of the Luhansk region, which forms the Donbass with Donetsk, where Russia is focusing its offensive after failing to take cities in central Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Luhansk Governor Serhi Haidai wrote on Telegram that Russia and its local representatives were “strengthening in the center of Severodonetsk” and had attacked a nitrogen plant, releasing toxic gases into the air. He said the Russians were also firing. Artillery at a plant in Lisichansk, a Ukrainian stronghold across the river from Severodnetsk.
“Given the presence of large-scale chemical production in Severodonetsk, Russian military attacks, including blind aerial bombardments, are simply insane,” Mr Zelensky said in an address late Tuesday.
In addition to losing the men, Ukraine has also been gradually losing control of Severodnetsk over the past week, and has urged the West if Ukraine’s industrial heartland, which borders Russia, to capture the Donbass at once. His forces need more advanced weapons. ,
Analysts say that when Ukrainians have learned to use the new weapon systems individually, they will be more effective when they are able to use them in concert. Western governments have expressed hope that the continued flow of weapons to the Kyiv government could change the calculation of fighting in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian-backed leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, told Russian state-run TASS news agency early Tuesday that a third of Severodnetsk is controlled by separatist forces. Videos of Chechen fighters allied with Russia in the city showed soldiers moving non-stop in the city centre.
The fall of Severodonetsk brought the Russians closer to their goal of controlling the Donbass and gave them a firm grip on the roads leading to Slovensk and Kramatorsk, which were seen as the most important redoubts of the Ukrainian army in the region. Russia’s attack on Severodnetsk has come at a high cost for the armed forces suffering from manpower shortages after their failed attempt to capture Kyiv.
If Ukraine ceded Severodonetsk to the Russians, Kyiv’s troops would likely retreat to Lisichansk, which overlooks Severodonetsk from across the Siversky Donets River.