Ukrainian forces have thwarted large-scale Russian offensive – Zelenskyy

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that Ukraine's defence forces have thwarted a large-scale offensive that Russia had planned to continue this spring.

Source: Zelenskyy in an interview with CNN and on social media

Quote: "Russia prepared a big offensive operation which they wanted to launch at the end of last year and continue this spring. We conducted our own counteroffensive actions in turn to prevent Russia from attacking us on a large scale.

It was a success, not only because of the land, but also because of our people, as well as preventing a major Russian offensive."

Details: Zelenskyy explained that all this has largely been made possible thanks to Ukrainian drone technologies. Russia has started losing 30,000-35,000 troops every month because of first-person view (FPV) drones and other types of unmanned systems.

Zelenskyy also said Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has never wanted to stop the war against Ukraine.

"He has been afraid of President Trump and of pressure from the United States. That's why he has played this game, pretending he has wanted negotiations. I keep believing that America has to increase pressure on Putin. Otherwise, he will not negotiate in good faith. He only wants to put forward ultimatums to Ukraine, as his demand to withdraw from our territory. But this will not satiate his appetite," he said.

Zelenskyy stressed that the situation around Iran is generating more revenues for Russia.

Quote: "Our intelligence reports that due to all the sanctions imposed by the United States and the EU, and because of our deep strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, Russia faced a deficit of more than US$100 billion in 2026 alone.

Now we see they have made around US$10 billion over two weeks of the war in the Middle East. This is really dangerous. It gives Putin more confidence that he can continue the war."

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