Volodymyr Zelensky made the appeal in a video address to the nation on Sunday night, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
‘Situation is very tough’
Ukraine’s president said: “Today, I held a regular meeting of the Staff. The main focus, of course, was on the situation at the front, primarily Donetsk and the southern directions. The situation is very tough. Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other areas in the Donetsk region are under constant Russian attacks. There are constant attempts to break through our defence.”
Zelensky warned: “The enemy does not count its people and, despite numerous casualties, maintains a high intensity of attacks. In some of its wars, Russia has lost in total less people than it loses there, in particular near Bakhmut.”
Ukraine’s president stated: “And this can only be countered by extraordinary resilience and a full understanding that by defending the Donetsk region, our warriors are defending the whole of Ukraine.”
‘We must speed up the supply of weapons for Ukraine’
Zelensky told the Ukrainian people: “We are doing everything to ensure that our pressure outweighs the occupiers' assault capabilities.”
He urged: “And it is very important to maintain the dynamics of defence support from our partners. The speed of supply has been and will be one of the key factors in this war.”
Ukraine’s president warned: “Russia hopes to drag out the war, to exhaust our forces.”
He stressed: “So we have to make time our weapon. We must speed up the events, speed up the supply and opening of new necessary weaponry options for Ukraine.”
Ukraine in talks over fighter jets, long-range rockets from West
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov has said that with main battle tanks from the West now on the way, Kyiv is in talks with allies over the supply of fighter jets and long-range missiles.
Reznikov told Canadian broadcaster CBC on Sunday night that he had written "a wish list to Santa" and that on the list "remains jet fighters, fighter jets, aircraft and probably rockets ... long-hand options to hit the Russians' fuel depots, ammunition depots and their commanders."
Ukraine’s defence minister said he hoped that the new two weeks of discussions with European and North American allies over military aircraft would lead to commitments, CBC reported.
This could be "a game changer" in Ukraine's fight against Russia, he stated.
Reznikov's words came amid reports that military officials had begun pushing the US Department of Defense to approve sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to help the country defend itself from Russian missile and drone attacks.
Monday is day 341 of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, president.gov.ua, The Independent, CBC