Volodymyr Zelensky said when they expect a new big Russian attack

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One day after the second anniversary of the war, the Ukrainian president held a press conference in Kyiv.

During the two years of the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine, 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers lost their lives, announced Volodymyr Zelensky.

“In this war, 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers died. Not 300,000 and not 150,000, as Putin and his deceitful circle are lying. But every Ukrainian soldier is a great loss for us,” he stated. For the first time since the start of the war two years ago, Zelenskyi has published data on the number of fallen Ukrainian soldiers. He added that, as far as he knows, Russia has lost 180,000 soldiers. “I don’t know how many missing people they have, but I know that there could be up to 500,000 including the wounded,” he added.

Zelenskiy did not reveal how many Ukrainian soldiers were wounded, because, as he said, Russia would know how many had left the battlefield. He did not name the number of missing soldiers either.

“We also know that tens of thousands of Ukrainians died in the territories occupied by Russia”

– he added.

The president expressed: he does not believe that negotiations with Putin could bring peace, but he believes that the Russian president will admit his mistake and defeat.

“The issue is legal and political. We offer a platform on which Putin can agree that he lost this war and that it was a mistake and a tragedy for us and the entire democratic world, so justice must be served on this issue” – formulated. He stated that he is sure that Ukraine will not lose this war, as he believes that they have no choice but to win, otherwise the country will cease to exist. At the same time, he emphasized: how difficult the victory will be and how many victims it will require depends to a large extent on the Western countries.

The head of state expressed his conviction that the US Congress will approve the multibillion-dollar aid package to be provided to Ukraine within a month. He added that after recent negotiations with Western partners, he is optimistic that Ukraine will soon receive long-range weapons, including tactical missile systems, from its partners. He drew attention to the fact that

Ukraine cannot strengthen its air defenses without the help of the United States.

He reiterated that his country needs the American Patriot air defense system.

Zelenskyi said that the Ukrainian army can push out the Russian forces from the territory of the country if it has about the same number of weapons. As an example, he mentioned that at the beginning of this year, the Russian army had 12 times more artillery systems than Ukraine, this has now decreased, but they still have more than six times the Ukrainian artillery weapons. According to his words, until the Ukrainian counterattacks succeed in reducing this ratio to at least one and a half times, the Ukrainian forces will “stand still or lose 50-100 meters”.

According to the head of state, a very difficult period awaits his country financially and in many other areas in March and April, and Russia may launch another large-scale attack against Ukraine at the end of May or the beginning of the summer.

Zelensky stated that Kiev is not negotiating with its partners to deploy their forces on the territory of Ukraine. According to him, Ukraine’s NATO accession basically depends on two countries, the United States and Germany.

Asked if he would pick up the phone if Putin called him, the president replied: “He won’t.” According to him, the Russian president does not want to end the war, at least not yet. According to his words, “money is Putin’s weak point”, therefore, if Russian assets frozen abroad are handed over to Ukraine, Putin’s position in the Russian business circles that support him would be weakened.

Zelenskiy also addressed the Polish farmers’ demonstrations. He stated that Ukraine’s goal is to remove obstacles on the Polish border, but if this fails, the Kyiv leadership will protect Ukrainian trade. In his opinion, there is an “internal struggle” in Poland, and he called it unfair that Ukraine is being used as a means of putting pressure on European institutions. At the same time, he stated that he trusts that the Ukrainian and Polish prime ministers will find a solution to this situation. “As president, I openly state that it is very important for us to maintain the alliance with Poland. And if a solution is still not reached, then we will protect our businesses,” said the Ukrainian head of state.