With the gruelling war with Russia nearly halfway past its fifth year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hinted that the tide is slowly turning in Ukraine’s favour. “We can’t say Russia is losing this war. But we can say they are losing the initiative each day,” Zelenskyy told The Guardian in an interview in London.
The situation on the battlefield is better than it has been for Kyiv for two and a half years, Zelenskyy said. “They are not winning the war,” he remarked, adding that he doesn’t see the Russians being optimistic in the coming months.
The Ukrainian President said that 23,000-24,000 troops are dying on the battlefield each month, while projecting that the Kremlin may not be able to scale up its offensive over time. However, he noted the situation can change.
Zelenskyy said that Kyiv remains committed to finding different avenues to negotiate and restart peace talks. “We hope that we can sit, speak and stop this war.”
Zelenskyy’s remarks come a day after the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Ukraine has recaptured more than 600 square km of territory so far this year. Russia currently controls 20 per cent of Ukrainian territory.
A Ukrainian soldier reacts as an MRLS BM-21 “Grad” fires at the Russian positions near Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region. (AP)
In the meantime, Russian energy supplies in several southern regions face disruptions following a surge in Ukrainian strikes, The Guardian reported, citing Russia’s Tass news agency. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ruled out holding talks with Zelenskyy any time soon.
Russia’s is reportedly withdrawing forces from the Kinburn Spit in Mykolaiv Oblast as Ukraine’s strikes against supply lines is rendering its defenses in the area increasingly untenable, according to the latest update from The Institute for The Study of War.
The fighting has intensified in recent weeks, with Kyiv launching strikes on oil installations and Russia targeting major cities, including the Ukrainian capital. On Saturday, Ukraine fired hundreds of drones, leaving one person dead and an oil depot on fire on the final day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
A change in strategy
Facing a manpower shortage, Kyiv has radically changed its battlefield strategy by relying more on robots, drones and other unmanned systems to carry out operations.
In April, Zelensky claimed that Ukraine had captured a Russian position entirely by deploying these systems, adding that since January, Kyiv had carried out 22,000 missions using them.
Earlier in May, British intelligence confirmed that Russia has lost approximately 500,000 troops since the beginning of the war in 2022, assessing that its military is “going backwards on the battlefield”.
Key meeting with European leaders
His comments come days after his meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Fredreich Merz in London. The three leaders pledged to coordinate further support to Kyiv.
The European leaders issued a joint statement saying that they discussed how they could use the upcoming G7 summit at Evian, the next meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, and the NATO summit at Ankara to best coordinate further support for Ukraine.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz pose on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street after their meeting in London. (AP)
Earlier in May, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz proposed giving Ukraine an interim “associate member” status in the European Union. He argued that it would be instrumental in helping Zelenskyy sell any peace settlement to Ukrainians that does not involve NATO membership or Kyiv regaining territory lost to Russia.
He pushed for the bloc to include Ukraine in its mutual assistance clause “to create a substantial security guarantee”.
The deadlock
The deadlock between Kyiv and Moscow is over the eastern Ukrainian territory of Donbas and Ukraine’s membership in NATO. In June 2017, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted legislation reinstating membership in the military alliance as a strategic foreign and security policy objective.
Donbas refers collectively to Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts — once considered the country’s industrial heartland. Russia has been pressing Kyiv to withdraw from this region.
Donbas accounts for over 50 per cent of the country’s coal reserves, 20 per cent of its gas fields, hosts fertile farmland, water resources and vast critical mineral deposits, essential to renewable energy technologies, according to the Centre for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD), a think-tank associated with the World Economic Forum (WEF).
According to Moscow’s “Novorossiya” narrative, large swathes of southeastern Ukraine are considered historically Russian lands, thereby justifying its occupation.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives for a meeting with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany in Downing Street in London. (AP Photo) 
A Ukrainian soldier reacts as an MRLS BM-21 “Grad” fires at the Russian positions near Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region. (AP)
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Ukraine’s President 
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