"As far as the war on the ground is concerned, there is a stalemate. It is a fact."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in an interview with Tg1 director Gianmarco Chiocci.
"Why? Because something was missing. There were delays in equipment and delays mean mistakes."
"We fight against terrorists - he added - we need modern technical means to face one of the largest armies in the world".
The toll from yesterday's Ukrainian missile bombing on a bakery in Lisichansk, in the pro-Russian separatist region of Lugansk, in eastern Ukraine has risen to at least 28 victims: the Russian Emergencies Ministry announced this to the Tass news agency.
"Operators of the Russian Emergencies Ministry rescued 10 people. Unfortunately, 28 people, including a child, died," it said in a statement.
Kiev: 'Fighting on the entire front, the operational situation remains tense'
While the Ukrainian presidency remains silent on the future of the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces
Valery Zaluzhny
, the commander of the ground forces and his possible successor,
Oleksandr Syrsky
, underlines that "the operational situation remains tense" on the battlefield and "heavy fighting take place on all areas of the front".
The senior officer makes no reference to reports that Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky
is preparing to announce Zaluzhnyi's resignation due to disagreements over what to do to win the war after the counteroffensive's failure.
However, in a message published yesterday on his Telegram account after a visit by troops near the city of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region (east), Syrsky also confirms the numerical superiority of Russian forces, underlining that "the enemy continues to conduct high-speed assaults intensity and constantly brings new reserves".
Zelensky's reluctance to support Zaluzhny's call to mobilize up to half a million people, made last December, is seen as one of the main reasons for rising tensions between the two.
While waiting for an announcement from the presidency, Syrsky writes: "To resolve problematic issues of fundamental importance for the stability of defense, the necessary instructions were given and the redistribution of forces and resources was carried out."
And the "main priorities - he concludes - remain the effective conduct of intelligence, the coordinated use of all means of fire protection, the protection of our units through radio-electronic warfare and the preservation of the lives of our soldiers".
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