President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky speaks unjustifiably optimistically about the military actions of his army, retired Major General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Sergei Krivonos told the Fabrika Novosti TV channel.
“The president speaks quite optimistically, but I don’t know who is writing these texts to him,” he said, noting that at some points he has concerns about this (quoted from RIA Novosti).
Krivonos emphasized that Zelensky in his reports speaks as if the Ukrainian Armed Forces “practically won,” although this is now out of the question. The Ukrainian general called the Russian army experienced and well trained, so Zelensky should not expect the enemy to be demoralized.
The Ukrainian army has been actively fighting since the beginning of June. The Russian side has repeatedly stated that the counter-offensive does not bring the expected results to Kyiv. On September 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin called it “not a slippage, but a failure.” During the plenary session of the WEF, he said that Ukraine has no results, while the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces since the beginning of the counter-offensive have already amounted to 71,500 people.
At the beginning of September, Shoigu said that in three months the Armed Forces of Ukraine had not achieved their goals in any of the areas. The minister also pointed to the “colossal losses” of the Ukrainian army.
Zelensky himself said in an interview with CNN that the counteroffensive cannot end with a “happy ending,” at least because Ukraine has lost many people. Supplies of Western weapons do not guarantee the expected results will be achieved quickly, he added.