Battle in skies will determine outcome of Russia’s war against Ukraine – Zelenskyy
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the decisive phase of Russia’s war against Ukraine has shifted from land and sea into the air, and therefore it is the "battle in the skies" that will determine the outcome of the long-running conflict.
He said this in an interview with the Financial Times, Censor.NET reports.
Decisive battle in the skies
According to Zelenskyy, thanks to domestically produced naval drones, Ukraine has already managed to completely push Russia’s Black Sea Fleet out of the western waters of the Black Sea, while Ukrainian infantrymen stopped the enemy’s advance on land at the cost of sacrifices. Now the fate of the war is being decided in the air.
"If you stop the enemy on the battlefield, if you stop the war on land, and if you deny him dominance at sea — as we did with our naval drones, driving the Russian fleet away — then the next battlefield becomes the sky. And frankly, in that contest it matters far less whose territory is larger," he said, noting Russia’s advantages in geography and manpower. "We have moved into the air domain. And in the air, we are already competitive," the president emphasized.
Air defense problem
At the NATO summit in Ankara, Zelenskyy will meet with US President Donald Trump and other leaders to try to persuade them to send more air defense systems and will insist that NATO countries help Ukraine create its own air defense systems.
"Europe must stop being negligent on this issue. It must share technologies and industrial capabilities with other countries, because there will never be enough Patriots for everyone," he said.
In the interview, the president also said that during a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Saturday, Trump described Ukraine’s campaign of long-range strikes inside Russia as "very good."
