Zelenskyy: «We have 14 understaffed brigades. Without weapons»

Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Video screenshot

There are 14 brigades in the Armed Forces of Ukraine that are without weapons, because they have not yet arrived from allied countries to our state.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this in an interview with Bloomberg.

He was asked when Ukraine will be able to proceed to a large-scale counteroffensive, when the «stalemate situation» will end. To this, Volodymyr Zelenskyy replied that there is no stalemate, but there is a problem with delays in arms deliveries.

«We have the desire, but the tools have not arrived. That is, we have brigades without weapons. We have a reserve, we have 14 brigades that are understaffed, that do not have the appropriate weapons that have already been voted on, that were talked about, the packages should come, but they are coming, unfortunately, slowly,» the president answered.

Zelenskyy emphasized that it is impossible to talk about counter-offensive actions, because today Ukraine should protect what it has.

«We want appropriate counter-offensive action when we are ready for it. We will be ready for it when the weapons arrive. She is not here today,» he added.

According to him, it is «the biggest tragedy of this war» that a lot of time can pass between the decision to provide aid to Ukraine and the receipt of this aid.

He also emphasized that the problem is that due to the long processes of weapons delivery, the enemy knows which aid is going in which directions and is already ready to attack there.

We will remind that in May the USA announced the allocation of a new package of military aid to Ukraine for $400 million.

The German government also updated the list of new military aid for Ukraine. It included, in particular, air defense systems IRIS-T SLM and HIMARS.