Zelenskyy says slow weapons delivery delayed Ukraine's counteroffensive

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed the slow delivery of weapons for Kyiv's delayed counteroffensive, allowing Russia to bolster its defenses in occupied areas including mines.Speaking to CNN in the port city of Odesa, Zelenskyy said that he had intended to launch Ukraine's counteroffensive "much earlier" than June."Our slowed-down counteroffensive is happening due to certain difficulties on the battlefield. Everything is heavily mined there," he said.He added, "I wanted our counteroffensive happening much earlier because everyone understood that if the counteroffensive will be unfolding later, then a much bigger part of our territory will be mined."He further revealed that he had apprehended US and European leaders about the lack of weapons that would in turn cause more casualties."I'm grateful to the US as the leaders of our support, but I told them as well as European leaders that we would like to start our counteroffensive earlier, and we will need all the weapons and material for that," he said."Why? Simply because if we start later, it will go slower, and we will have losses of lives because everything is heavily mined -- we will have to go through it all," Zelenskyy explained.The same reason was cited by Ukraine's military commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny in another interview with US media last week."It pisses me off that some in the West complain about the slow start and progress of the long-awaited push against Russian forces in Ukraine's south," Zaluzhny told The Washington Post.Zelensky told CNN that he had "emphasized" the need for F-16s many times."It's not even about the Ukrainian advantage of the sky over the Russians. This is only about being equal," he said, noting the difficulty of moving forward on the battlefield without air support and more long-range weaponry.With inputs from AFPRead all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.