Sharjah 24 – AFP: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Friday that "slower" arms supplies from Western countries were threatening his counteroffensive, calling for more "powerful and long-range" weapons to push back Russian forces.
Ukraine launched its pushback against Russian forces in June after stockpiling Western weapons, but has made limited gains as its troops encounter heavily fortified Russian defensive lines.
"All processes are becoming more complicated and slower -- from sanctions to the provision of weapons," Zelensky said in comments published on the presidential website.
"The longer it takes, the more people suffer... If we are not in the sky and Russia is, they stop us from the sky. They stop our counteroffensive," he warned.
His comments came as Moscow held local elections on Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory that have been denounced by Kyiv and international groups as a sham.
"Russia's pseudo-elections in the temporarily occupied territories are worthless," Ukraine's foreign ministry said in a statement, accusing Moscow of "grossly violating" its sovereignty.
Russia said voting was currently underway in the four Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson -- none of which Moscow fully controls -- as well as in Crimea.
Russia continued to pound central and eastern Ukraine with air strikes Friday, with Ukrainian officials posting images of the destruction on social media.
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