Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski said Friday that his country needs between 300 and 500 tanks to successfully carry out a counteroffensive against the Russian Army after Germany gave the go-ahead for the delivery of the much-coveted Leopard 2s.
«We need between 300 and 500 tanks. We need tanks to carry out an offensive on our territory, on our land. We need armored vehicles to protect our people,» he has claimed during an interview for Sky News.
Despite the thanks to Germany and other partners such as the United States and the United Kingdom, Zelenski has taken the opportunity to reproach the slowness that in his opinion plays the bureaucracy in this conflict, criticizing that they have not yet received armament when its delivery was already approved some time ago.
«The number of tanks and the time of delivery are of critical and crucial importance (…) Sometimes, the delivery of weapons takes months. I do not blame anyone, but there is only a sense of relief when the weapons delivered to us are being used by our army,» he said.
As for hypothetical peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelenski has again settled the issue by rejecting such a possibility as he doubts that the Kremlin wants, as well as the conditions for them. «They are criminals who have come here to kill and rape,» he has said.
«They don’t want any talks (…) Putin is just trying to deceive us. He doesn’t want negotiations because he doesn’t want peace,» has elucidated Zelenski, who warns that Russia is waging «a big war» and that Ukraine is just the first scenario of many others that may come if they are not able to resist.
For Zelenski, Russia only talks about peace when it needs to «regroup», or has «big losses», because «they say they want peace and then attack with missiles at night». The Ukrainian president has conditioned any agreement to the withdrawal of Russian troops and a change of government in the Kremlin.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
