Western fear of Russia defeat holding back support for Ukraine, says Zelenskiy

Ukraine has criticised allies for barring its military from using western-supplied weapons to strike Russian territory, and accused them of limiting the support they provide to Kyiv because they fear the geopolitical fallout from Moscow losing the war.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy took western states to task as his country’s forces continued to battle a new Russian incursion into the eastern Kharkiv region, and braced for a similar potential attack on the neighbouring province of Sumy.

“I think our partners are afraid of the Russian Federation’s defeat in this war. They want Ukraine to win in a way that Russia does not lose. That would mean an unpredictable defeat and unpredictable geopolitics,” Mr Zelenskiy said on Friday.

“It doesn’t work like that ... For Ukraine to win, we should give everything needed for victory.”

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He also railed against a demand from the United States and some other western countries that weapons they provide to Ukraine are only used on the front line and in occupied territory, not against potential military targets in Russia itself.

The restriction prevents Ukraine’s forces from striking most Russian missile launch sites, and border areas where Russian troops and armour gather before attacking Ukraine – as happened before its latest attack on Kharkiv region.

“I do not think there should be any restrictions, because this is not about a Ukrainian army offensive using western weapons on the territory of Russia. This is defence,” Mr Zelenskiy said.

He also linked the enemy incursion into Kharkiv to “a shortage of air defence”, which allowed Russian warplanes to pound the border area with “glide bombs” that can weigh 1.5 tonnes and fly for 50km. Ukraine has asked allies for months to send more air defence systems and missiles, with very limited success.

Russia hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, with two such bombs on Friday, killing at least two civilians and injuring 13 others.

“The main thing today is that our defence forces have stabilised the situation ... The deepest point of the advance is 10km,” Mr Zelenskiy said, noting that even the most advanced Russian units were only nearing the first of three lines of defensive fortifications in the Kharkiv region.

Ukraine said its troops were fighting Russian units in northern districts of the border town of Vovchansk, and the military’s top Commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said the Russian attack had “failed to break through our defences”.

“However, we understand that there will be tough battles ahead and the enemy is preparing for it,” he added, noting that he had recently “checked all the units that are preparing for defence in the Sumy direction”.

“The enemy expanded the zone of active hostilities by almost 70km, thus trying to force us to use an additional number of brigades from the reserve,” Col Gen Syrskyi said.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said he had ordered his military to create a “buffer zone” in the Kharkiv region to prevent deadly cross-border shelling by Ukraine. He added that he had no plans “as of today” to try to seize Kharkiv city, which repelled Russian attacks in 2022.