Russia wants to capture Chasiv Yar by Victory Day, but I’m counting on us to withstand it – Zelenskyy

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the Russians are planning to capture Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast by 9 May (Victory Day, a Russian holiday that commemorates the Soviet victory in WWII), but he is counting on Ukraine being able to repel the Russians and disrupt Russia's plans for a full-scale offensive in June.

Source: Zelenskyy in an interview with NBC News, the full version of which has been posted by the President’s press service

Quote: "Russia wants to mobilise 300,000 soldiers by 1 June, and we are preparing for this. Russia expects to occupy Chasiv Yar in the eastern part of Ukraine by 9 May.

I was recently in the region and spoke to the soldiers. The soldiers don’t have enough equipment to combat the Russian reconnaissance drones that fully adjust Russian artillery fire, and they also lack artillery shells.

I am counting on us being able to withstand them, that the weapons I mentioned will arrive in time and we will be able to repel the enemy. And then destroy Russia's plans for a full-scale counteroffensive in June."

Background:

• Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said on 14 April that the Russian military leadership had set its troops the task of capturing Chasiv Yar by 9 May.
• On 3 April, Zelenskyy stated that Russia is preparing to mobilise an additional 300,000 servicemen by 1 June.
• He later added that Russia will need around a month to train the 300,000 people it expects to be able to mobilise, and that he has not ruled out that even more people might eventually be mobilised.

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