Ukraine needs more time for counteroffensive – Zelensky

He said this in an interview for public service broadcasters who are members of Eurovision News, including the BBC, Ukrinform reports.

"With [what we already have] we can go forward, and, I think, be successful. But we'd lose a lot of people. I think that's unacceptable. So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time,” Zelensky said.

According to him, the Ukrainian army still needs "some things", including armoured vehicles that are "arriving in batches".

At the same time, the President expressed confidence that the Ukrainian military could advance, warning of the risks of a "frozen conflict" which, he said, was what Russia was "counting on".

Zelensky stressed that “they can't pressure Ukraine into surrendering territories. Why should any country of the world give Putin its territory?"

Also, Zelensky dismissed fears about losing U.S. support if President Joe Biden is not re-elected in 2024.

According to him, Ukraine still has bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress. "Who knows where we'll be [when the election happens]? I believe we'll win by then."

Zelensky noted that western sanctions were having an impact on Russia's defence industry, mentioning depleted missiles stockpiles and shortages of artillery.

"They still have a lot in their warehouses but… we already see that they've reduced shelling per day in some areas,” he added.

Moscow, however, had found ways to bypass some of the measures, Zelensky noted and urged countries to target those helping Russia circumvent the bans.

Zelensky again rejected the Russian accusation that Ukraine was behind an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin last week, which was described by Moscow as an attempt to assassinate President Putin. The Ukrainian leader said he believed the apparent attack could have been a false flag operation, carried out by Russia itself, and that the claim was being used as an "excuse" by Moscow to attack Ukraine.

"They constantly look for something to sound like a justification, saying: 'You do this to us, so we do that to you'. But it didn't work. Even for their domestic public, it didn't work. Even their own propagandists didn't believe that. Because it looked very, very artificial,” Zelensky said.

As to the Eurovision song contest, which is being held in the English city of Liverpool, the Ukrainian president noted that he would have preferred to see the competition in a neighbouring country "to where our people could travel to and be very close" but that he had "lots of respect" for Britain, an "amazing country".