Zelensky reacted to Zaluzhny's words about the "stalemate" in the war

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he does not consider the situation at the front to be stalemate. The president said this during a press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, commenting on an article by the AFU commander in chief, Valeriy Zaluzhnyyy, in The Economist magazine, in particular his words about the difficult situation at the front.

Zelensky noted that the situation on the battlefield could be turned around with the help of F-16 fighter jets, which Western countries have agreed to provide to Ukraine. But he stressed that they should wait a bit.

This is not a stalemate situation. Russia controls the sky. We are taking care of our military. No one wants to just throw, as Russia throws like meat its people. How do we fight this? F-16s, we have to wait for the guys to learn, for them to come back. When there is air defence on the front, the military go forward, use the equipment," he said.

The President pointed out that many people last year considered the situation on the front a stalemate.

A few military tricks, and you remember, the Kharkiv region was liberated," he said.

Zelensky added that no one was going to "freeze" the conflict. He also denied information about pressure on him from his partners to move to negotiations with Russia.

Nobody is putting pressure on me today. All this was at the beginning of the war and before the war. Today, no one from the leaders of the EU and the United States is pressurising us to sit down with Russia to talk and give something to it - there will be no such thing," the Ukrainian leader said.

It should be noted that in his article in the Economist , Zaluzhny made it clear that F-16s are hardly capable of providing a breakthrough at the front at the moment, while the advance of the Ukrainian military is hampered by Russian mines and a lack of equipment, which arrives with long delays. Zaluzhny noted that during the summer offensive, Ukrainian troops managed to advance only 17 kilometres.