”This is not a stalemate.” Zelensky commented on Zaluzhnyiʼs article

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi spoke about the article by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny for The Economist. According to him, now the situation in Ukraine is "not deadlocked".

He said this at a joint press conference with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Ukrinform reports.

Zelensky recalled that at the beginning of the full-scale war, "everyone said how much we have left", and not all leaders wanted to communicate with Ukraine.

"But we really believed and fought. And they won. Time has passed today. People are tired. Everyone gets tired and there are different opinions [...]. Everyone is human, regardless of their status... I emphasize this again. We have already talked about it. This is not news," the president said.

He also added that there are different opinions about the situation, but first of all it is necessary to work "with partners on air defense, block the sky, give our guys an opportunity to take offensive actions."

"We have to think about the alternative. Yes, we must protect our people. Fact. But what is the alternative? We must then give a third of our state. This will only be the beginning. He [Putin] will not end there. We already know what a frozen conflict is. We drew conclusions for ourselves," Zelenskyy summed up.

• In a new article, Valery Zaluzhny warned that the war is moving into a protracted positional stage, and in such a war, Russia has more chances. Therefore, Ukraine now needs airplanes, drones, means of radio-electronic warfare and technologies for demining dense minefields.