Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said there is no need for illusions as there are still many challenges lying ahead in the war with Russia.
“Ukraine is conducting a strategic defense operation against a much more numerous opponent and under the threat of ground invasion by Belarusian troops. We are taking losses. The enemy is destroying our cities and undermining our economy. The situation is very difficult. But as long as our army, which is reinforced by reserves, is preserved – we will fight. And we will win!”, said the Minister.
According to Reznikov, the enemy no longer dreams of capturing Kyiv, is out of breath in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions and receiving painful blows near Kharkiv, in the Mykolaiv, Kherson and Luhansk regions.
“The heroic defenders of Mariupol have played a huge role in destroying the enemy’s plans and enhancing our defense. By virtue of their dedication and superhuman courage, tens of thousands of lives throughout Ukraine were saved. Today Mariupol is saving Kyiv, Dnipro and Odessa. Everyone must understand this,” added the Minister.
He said that residents of Kherson, Enerhodar and other cities who are protesting unarmed against the Russian occupiers demonstrate that the will of the Ukrainian people is unbreakable.
“As mentioned before, we agreed not to highlight info on the supply of weapons. But I can say that in recent days the team of the Ministry of Defense has delivered and handed over to the Armed Forces 51,000 bulletproof vests with class 4 protection pursuant to NATO standards. This protection was purchased mainly at the expense of the state budget, and therefore – thanks to all Ukrainians. We are working round the clock and preparing the next batches”, said Reznikov.
He noted that the kremlin no longer knows how to explain the things that are happening. It is because these days they have buried more soldiers in the regions of russia than their officially acknowledged losses.
The Defense Minister said that our defenders have almost completely wiped out a number of russian tank, air assault, engineering and other units that were considered “elite”, along with their commanders.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, our soldiers have shot down 100 planes and 120 helicopters, destroyed almost 500 tanks and 1,500 russian armored combat vehicles.
“That is why russia is gathering mercenaries all over the world and making desperate attempts to push Belarusian troops into the hell of war in Ukraine. The position of our army is very clear: all invaders will get a harsh rebuff, regardless of who they are or where they come from. We have repeated it many times”, said Reznikov.