Ukrainian Presidential Advisor: 'Counter-offensive operations we launched last month will take long time'

A senior aide to Ukraine's president told AFP Wednesday that Kyiv's counteroffensive launched last month to recapture territory under Russian control would likely be grinding, Report informs, citing Kyiv Post.

Five weeks into Kyiv's long-anticipated operation, much of the front appeared to be frozen. Presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak admitted progress was "slower than we want".

"Undoubtedly, this operation will be quite difficult, long and will take quite a lot of time," Podolyak said.

On the battlefield, Podolyak said Kyiv's offensive was difficult because of heavily mined territory as well as logistical problems, including in arms deliveries.

He said Kyiv needs an additional 200 tanks and dozens of F-16 fighter jets to accelerate its efforts to wrest Russian forces from entrenched positions in the south and east of the country.

"Of course, we need additional armoured vehicles -- two to three hundred tanks first of all," Podolyak told AFP journalists.

"We need 60 to 80 F-16 planes in order to close the skies well, especially in the area near the front."
But he claimed that the number of "offensive operations" led by the Ukrainian army was "progressively rising" and said that not all brigades readied for the counteroffensive had been sent to the front.