Ukraine is now able to inflict “significant losses” on the Russians, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as other Ukrainian officials said an influx of Western weapons is changing the battlefield.
In his daily video message Monday, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces are “able to inflict significant logistical losses on the occupiers.”
“It is increasingly difficult for the Russian army to hold positions on the captured territory,” he said. “Step by step, we advance, disrupt the supply of the occupiers, and identify and neutralize collaborators.”
Valeriy Zaluzhniy, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said the “timely arrival” of longer range artillery such as the US HIMARS system was helping to change the battlefield.
“We managed to stabilize the situation. It is complex, intense, but completely controlled. An important factor contributing to our retention of defensive lines and positions is the timely arrival of M142 HIMARS, which deliver surgical strikes on enemy control posts, ammunition and fuel storage depots,” Zaluzhniy said.
CNN has identified nearly 20 strikes far behind Russian lines, in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, so far this month — some of them causing large explosions and multiple detonations.
Zaluzhniy said he had thanked Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the United States, for the help of the US and its allies “in the struggle for freedom.”
Separately, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, told Ukrainian television that “today, we really have a completely different situation than it was a month ago. Now, thanks to the fact that we receive enough weapons from our partners, we have established a certain parity in certain positions.”
Danilov said Ukraine would like more weapons in future to tip the balance in its favor “so that we have as many capabilities as possible to end this war as soon as possible.”
Speaking about the situation in Donbas, Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional military administration, said Monday that “Western weapons work not at 100% but at 200% because [Russian] warehouses are blown up. Command posts are also blown up. “
Hayday said “we can clearly understand that the Russians are really afraid of a further increase in those Western weapons.”
