Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza is “taking away the focus” from his country’s conflict with Russia, which he accused of having “one of the goals” to weaken international attention on Ukraine.
Zelensky made the remarks on Saturday at a joint press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who visited Kyiv to express the European Union’s support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Ukrainian leader also denied that the fighting in his country had reached a stalemate, despite a recent statement by his chief military commander that the war was moving to a “positional” or static stage.
He said that Ukraine was still making progress in its counter-offensive in the south, but admitted that it urgently needed more advanced weapons and air defence systems from its Western allies.
Zelensky also confirmed that several Ukrainian soldiers were killed on Friday in a Russian missile strike in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and said that his forces had retaliated by hitting a shipbuilding plant in Crimea, the peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
He rejected any pressure to negotiate with Russia and said that he would not give away any of Ukraine’s territory or interests.
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Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has claimed that its military intervention is aimed at protecting the rights of Russian-speaking minorities in eastern and southern Ukraine. It has also accused Ukraine of violating the 2015 Minsk peace agreements, which called for a ceasefire and a political settlement of the conflict.
The war in Ukraine has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced over a million, according to the UN. It has also sparked a diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West, with the US and the EU imposing sanctions on Moscow and providing military and financial assistance to Kyiv.
The war between Israel and Gaza, which erupted on May 10, 2023, has also drawn international attention and concern, with more than 10000 people killed and thousands injured in the cross-border rocket fire and air strikes. The UN Security Council has called for an immediate end to the violence and a return to dialogue.