"This is not a stalemate." Zelensky talks about what is happening at the front. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that the war had “reached a dead end”

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky does not consider the situation at the front to be a stalemate. He made this statement at a press conference with the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, commenting on the interview of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny to The Economist magazine.

“This is not a stalemate. Russia controls the sky. We take care of our military. No one wants to simply abandon them, like Russia abandons its people like meat. <…> How to overcome this? F-16, we have to wait for the guys to learn, when they come back. When there is air defense at the front, the military goes forward and uses equipment,” the President of Ukraine said.

Zelensky recalled that in 2022 everyone believed that Ukrainian troops were in a stalemate. “A few military tricks, and, you remember, the Kharkov region was liberated,” Zelensky said.

We have no right to give up. What's the alternative? What, we need to give away a third of our state? This will only be the beginning. We know what a frozen conflict is, we have already drawn conclusions for ourselves. We need to work more with our air defense partners, unblock the skies, and give our fighters the opportunity to carry out offensive operations.

Zelensky also said that Western countries are not putting pressure on him, forcing him to start negotiations with Russia.

Everyone knows my attitude, which coincides with the attitude of Ukrainian society. Nobody is pressuring me today. All this happened at the beginning of the war and before the war. Today, no one is putting pressure on the leaders of the EU or the United States. For us to sit down with Russia now, talk and give it something - this will not happen.

• On November 4, NBC reported , citing sources, that the United States and Europe began discussing with Ukraine the possibility of peace negotiations with Russia. The conversations focused on general details of what Kyiv might have to give up to reach an agreement, the sources said.
• An interview with the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny in The Economist magazine was published on November 1. Answering questions from the publication, he said that the war with Russia has “reached a dead end,” and the Ukrainian offensive risks giving way to a trench war that could drag on for years.