Zelenskyy says Russia ‘invests everything’ to stop Ukraine push – Al Jazeera English

Ukraine’s president says he’s monitoring the security situation in Belarus, where Wagner fighters are training Belarusian troops.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned his country that Russia is pouring all available resources into its military operations to prevent Kiev troops from pressing ahead with their counter-offensive in the south and east of the country.

Zelenskyy’s comments on Friday came as Ukrainian officials again conceded that Ukraine’s much-anticipated operation to push back Russian forces was progressing far more slowly than some had expected, although new reports of Ukraine incursions on the battlefield have emerged.

“We must all be very clear – as clear as possible – that Russian forces in our southern and eastern territories are doing everything they can to stop our warriors,” Zelensky said in his daily evening address to the country.

“Every thousand meters of progress, every success of each of our combat brigades deserves gratitude,” he said.

Zelenskyy also said he had received an “important report” on the security situation in neighboring Belarus, which he was closely monitoring, although there were “no major threats” at the moment.

“Our full concentration is on the front,” he said.

The Ukrainian president’s comment on Belarus came after it became known that the Russian mercenary group Wagner had reached an agreement to train Belarusian troops.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday that an agreement had been reached with Wagner to develop a roadmap “for the near future for training and experience transfer between units of different branches of the armed forces”.

The Defense Ministry also released a video showing Wagner fighters teaching Belarusian soldiers at a training ground near the town of Asipovichy, some 90 km (56 miles) southeast of the capital Minsk.

The ministry gave no details on how Wagner fighters were involved in military training in Belarus, where the mutinous mercenary force was promised sanctuary after they called off their uprising against Russian military leaders last month.

Belarus has emerged as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in his war against Ukraine.

“It’s not going so fast”

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, became the latest official to admit on Friday that fighting had been difficult for Ukrainian forces and the offensive “wasn’t progressing that quickly”.

Western allies, who have supplied Kiev with billions of dollars worth of weapons, have not put pressure on the country to move faster, said Yermak, who is believed to be Zelenskyy’s right-hand man.

“There’s no pressure, just one question: how can we help you further?” he said.

Ukrainian General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukraine’s forces in the south, said after meeting Zelenskyi on Friday that his troops were “systematically driving the enemy out of their positions”.

Enemy losses in the last 24 hours amounted to at least 200, he wrote on Telegram.

Russia’s defense ministry said in its daily bulletin on Friday its forces repelled 16 Ukrainian attacks on the eastern front, including near the long-contested town of Maryinka and in the strategic village of Klishchyivka on the southern outskirts of Bakhmut.

Military analyst Serhiy Hrabskyi told Ukraine’s NV Radio that in the south of the country “the situation when advancing towards Berdyansk is very difficult” – referring to a port on the Sea of ​​Azov.

“The enemy is resisting to stop our advance south,” he said.

Ukraine’s counter-offensive, which has been going on for weeks, has reportedly focused on capturing villages in the country’s south-east towards the Sea of ​​Azov and areas near the eastern city of Bakhmut, which was captured in May by Russian forces after months of bloody fighting, mainly under the leadership by Russia, was taken by Wagner fighters.

Ukrainian forces are hoping to cut off a land bridge built by Russian forces to the annexed Crimea peninsula.