Russia-Ukraine War
The 28th Mechanized Brigade, positioned several miles south of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s east, firing on Russian positions this month.
KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelensky cautioned on Wednesday that it would take time for Ukraine to achieve results in its counteroffensive, as Ukrainian officials seek to manage expectations around the widely anticipated military operation.
“Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It’s not,” Mr. Zelensky told the BBC in an interview. “What’s at stake is people’s lives.”
In the opening weeks of the counteroffensive to drive Russian forces from southern Ukraine, Kyiv’s forces have recaptured tiny farming villages. Progress in the early days has often been measured in yards, not miles.
Military analysts have said that it would take weeks or months, not days, to gauge the success of Ukraine’s offensive and warned that the fight would be long and bloody. But anticipation over the operation, including among allies, has been building as Ukraine spent months amassing a powerful arsenal of Western-supplied weapons and training tens of thousands of soldiers for the campaign.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr. Zelensky acknowledged that progress on the battlefield might be “slower than desired,” but suggested that expectations of rapid success were unrealistic.
“Whatever some might want, including attempts to pressure us, with all due respect, we will advance on the battlefield the way we deem best,” he said.
His remarks echoed those of other Ukrainian officials, who have said for weeks that the counteroffensive was going to be slow.
Ukrainian forces are moving forward “in small steps,” Hanna Malyar, a deputy defense minister, said on Tuesday evening. While Ms. Malyar acknowledged that the progress might be less rapid than some had hoped, she said Ukrainian troops would advance gradually in the face of fierce resistance.
The pace of the campaign so far stands in contrast to Kyiv’s previous counteroffensives, most notably the lightning advance through the northeastern region of Kharkiv in September and the recapture of the southern port city of Kherson in the fall. Those successes demonstrated Ukrainian forces’ ability to move quickly on the battlefield and exploit Russian vulnerabilities.
But the circumstances are different for this campaign: Moscow’s forces have had months to dig in across the long front line in the southeast, lay minefields and prepare trenches.
Ukraine’s defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, warned against drawing comparisons to the Kharkiv advance.
“It is impossible to expect that everything will happen as quickly as it was with Kharkiv, because the front line is completely different, and the terrain, and weather conditions,” he said in an interview this week with Current Time TV. “Plus, the Russians had the opportunity to prepare. There is an incredible density of minefields.”
While Ukraine has not disclosed losses, analysts have said the attacks against the formidable Russian defenses are likely taking a heavy toll on Kyiv’s forces and on their newly supplied Western tanks and armored vehicles.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia suggested on Wednesday that those losses were contributing to “a certain lull” in the fighting.
But Russian forces also are suffering losses: Journalists who have traveled with the Ukrainian military to recently reclaimed villages have reported seeing Russian bodies lining the roads.
Anton Troianovski contributed reporting.
Source: The New York Times
