Ukraine ready for counteroffensive – Zelenskyy

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine is ready for a counteroffensive.

"In my opinion, as of today, we are ready to do it. We would like to have certain things, but we can't wait for months. We strongly believe we will succeed. I don't know how long it will take," he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Saturday.

Speaking about the possibility of using nuclear weapons by Russia, Zelenskyy said: "A cornered animal, he is afraid of losing his life. […] He understands power. If we are talking about the isolation of the Russian Federation and his circle of people, then it is necessary to do it powerfully."

To the question about a possible change of the U.S. administration during the upcoming elections, Zelenskyy said that "President [of the United States Joseph] Biden has been more helpful to us than President [Donald] Trump. […] But at the same time, we must remember that there was no full-scale war at that time and I'm not sure how Trump would have acted."

"I didn't understand when Donald Trump said that: 'In 24 hours, I would bring Putin and Zelenskyy to the table and end the war.' He could have done it. But that didn't happen. Yes, the question was probably not as pressing at the time, because there was no full-scale invasion. But our territories were occupied," Zelenskyy said.

The head of state stressed the importance of providing Ukraine with the Patriot aid defense systems.

"There's currently one weapon capable of stopping some types of missiles launched by the Russian Federation […]. The only system in the world is the Patriot. […] The reality is 50 Patriots will, for the most part, prevent people from dying," he said.

The Ukrainian president stressed that "any counteroffensive without air superiority is very dangerous."

Speaking about the upcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius, Zelenskyy expressed the opinion that "some NATO countries are so afraid of Russia that they don't want to admit Ukraine into the alliance."

"If we are not acknowledged and given a signal in Vilnius, I believe there is no point for Ukraine to be at this summit. […] But tell me how many lives is one phrase at the Vilnius summit worth?" he said.

Tags: #counteroffensive