Ukraine not on cusp of losing war with Russia, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian president considering sending an additional 500,000 troops into battle
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine is not on the cusp of losing its war with Russia as he considers mobilizing up to 500,000 more troops.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday he is mulling a request from Ukraine's military to send another half-million soldiers into battle but has asked military officials to spell out their plans in detail on the "very sensitive matter" before making a decision. He said the move would cost Ukraine about 500 billion hyrvnias ($17.9 billion Cdn).
The Ukrainian army had nearly 800,000 troops fighting the Russian invasion in October, and one million in uniform in total including National Guard and other units, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.
It is outgunned by the Russians, whose President Vladimir Putin ordered the country's military to increase its number of troops by 170,000 earlier this month, to a total of 1.32 million.
With the war approaching its two-year mark, Ukraine's support from Western allies, as well as its ability to win the war, has come into question.
In response to a journalist's question at Tuesday's press conference in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said that he does not believe Ukraine is losing the war but acknowledged the country is facing many challenges.
"We are living creatures," he said through a translator. "We live here in Ukraine and we fight."
Ukraine's counteroffensive has barely budged the 1,000-kilometre front line this year against Russian defences, and ground movements are being slowed by bad weather as winter settles in, leading to heavier artillery, missile and drone use.
Zelenskyy dismissed suggestions Tuesday that Moscow's forces have come out of 2023 on top.
The UN's human rights chief, Volker Turk, said Tuesday that his agency has confirmed more than 10,000 civilian deaths in Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion started in February 2022, and that the true toll is "probably substantially higher."
Meanwhile, billions of dollars in financial support from Western countries are currently in limbo.
Hungary vetoed a proposed 50-billion euro ($73.2-billion Cdn) aid package from the EU last week that was aimed at helping the country stay afloat as it continues to suffer damages from the war. In the U.S., President Joe Biden is struggling to push a $60-billion aid package to Ukraine through Congress, and the U.S. Defence Department says it is almost out of money to help Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said he is not worried about his allies pulling through.
"I am confident that the U.S. will not let us down and that what we have agreed with the U.S. will be fulfilled," Zelenskyy said.
He was less optimistic about Ukraine's chances of joining NATO, however, which he said is Ukraine's "most powerful" option.
"All these signals about our membership so far are nonsense," Zelenskyy said. "We didn't receive a solid offer, not from a single partner of ours. It is hard to imagine, at this point, how this can happen."
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With files from the Associated Press