Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the winter would complicate military operations in his country and that he believed the Israel-Hamas conflict was threatening to overshadow the war in Ukraine.
The current war, which began when Russia invaded the country in February of 2022, is entering its second winter after a summer in which Ukrainian counter-offensives failed to break through entrenched Russian positions in eastern Ukraine.
NATO backers of Ukraine, including the United States, hoped that significant military aid would bolster Ukrainian efforts to recapture lost territory. Ukraine’s failures to overcome Russian defenses throughout the spring and summer have left Ukraine in a difficult diplomatic position as it seeks continued military and economic aid from NATO countries.
President Zelenskyy seemed to have mixed feelings about his military’s efforts over the summer of 2023. Zelenskyy declared his military the second best in the world but said he was not satisfied with continued Ukrainian casualties and with the level of military aid NATO has provided.
“Look, we are not backing down; I am satisfied. We are fighting with the second [best] army in the world; I am satisfied. We are losing people; I’m not satisfied. We didn’t get all the weapons we wanted. I can’t be satisfied, but I also can’t complain too much,” Zelenskyy recently told the Associated Press.
Zelenskyy also acknowledged that his military did not achieve its objectives throughout the summer of 2023.
“We wanted faster results. From that perspective, unfortunately, we did not achieve the desired results. And this is a fact,” he said.
Zelenskyy also told the AP that the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas was drawing the attention of the international community away from Ukraine.
“We already can see the consequences of the international community shifting [attention] because of the tragedy in the Middle East. Only the blind don’t recognize this,” he said.
Zelenskyy added that Ukraine needed to fight for attention to ensure that its war with Russia is not forgotten amid rising tensions elsewhere in the world.
“… [W]e also need to fight for attention for the full-scale war. We must not allow people to forget about the war here,” he said.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, continued taxpayer spending by Congress on military aid for Ukraine is up in the air as various lawmakers seek to negotiate conditional agreements regarding aid to Israel, the budget ceiling, and border security. Notably, a growing number of lawmakers have been looking to ramp down taxpayer spending on Ukraine, arguing that the unlawful migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border needs attention.