The counteroffensive is a pivotal moment for Zelensky, a 45year-old former actor and comedian whose leadership during the war has propelled him to global prominence. The outcome will shape the contours of Western military backing and diplomatic jockeying over Ukraine’s future. Ukraine’s backers have provided billions in military and financial support that has been essential to Kyiv’s war effort, and calls for Zelensky to seek a peace deal could grow if the counteroffensive fails to deliver a significant breakthrough. During the interview, Zelensky veered from expressions of gratitude to Western supporters for weapons deliveries to words of frustration about their reluctance to give Ukraine greater quantities of powerful arms. His statements reflected the balance he must find between pressing to get what he needs to retain Ukraine’s independence and domestic political support, while not pushing allies too far and eroding their backing.
Zelensky said he was aware that Western leaders sometimes take offense at his harsh tone, but couldn’t understand why, in his view, they were drip-feeding more-advanced arms that they know would protect lives and help Ukraine win. If Ukraine isn’t able to withstand Russia, Zelensky said, “that animal, that beast will develop a taste” for conquest and go further. “Let’s not compare who should be grateful to whom.” Zelensky spoke at a government residence after a day visiting wounded soldiers, meeting military commanders and visiting the port to discuss how to increase exports. Wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with his country’s name, he looked a touch weary, but perked up when asked how he keeps his spirits up. “There is no place for weakness,” he said. The West has helped train and equip tens of thousands of soldiers to try to strengthen Kyiv’s hand for the counteroffensive. Ukraine repelled a Russian assault on its capital in February 2022 and took back swaths of territory in the northeast and south in two earlier counter-offensives. In recent weeks, Ukraine has stepped up long-range attacks with missiles and drones aimed at crippling Russian supply lines. Ukraine-backed Russian volunteers have staged cross-border raids aimed at forcing Moscow to shift troops from front lines inside Ukraine.
Western officials said they thought Ukraine’s counterattack was imminent, and that Kyiv was waiting for the ground to dry out.
Russian offensive efforts this year have yielded tiny gains, including the capture of the small eastern city of Bakhmut, but cost thousands of lives and strained Moscow’s military.
Ukraine’s Western backers recognize that Kyiv’s own offensive won’t end the war, but want it to demonstrate to Russian President Vladimir Putin the futility of his strategy of digging in and waiting for support for Ukraine to erode, a Western official said.
The Biden administration has committed more than $37 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion and pledged further military aid. European allies have followed. But former President Donald Trump, the leading Republican contender for the 2024 presidential election, declined last month to commit to backing Ukraine, saying he would seek to bring a swift end to the war, without specifying how. Zelensky said he was concerned that any change in administration could affect aid. “In a situation like this, when there is support, you are afraid of changes,” he said. Zelensky said he was perplexed by Trump’s claim he could end the war in 24 hours, as Trump hadn’t done so while in office, when Russia was already occupying Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine.
‘We strongly believe that we will succeed,’ Ukrainian President Zelensky told The Wall Street Journal in an interview in Odesa. JUSTYNA MIELNIKIEWICZ/ MAPS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Biden has an emotional attachment to Ukraine that has underpinned his administration’s support for the country, Zelensky said. Trump’s presidency came before the full-scale invasion, and “I’m not sure how Trump would have acted,” he said.
Still, Ukraine’s president said he was encouraged by bipartisan support in the U.S. and the backing of ordinary citizens, and hoped that both parties and Congress would continue to support Ukraine and pressure any new administration to keep up the assistance. A more immediate concern for Zelensky is to secure a clear path to membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization at a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July.
NATO said in 2008 that Ukraine would become a member, but gave no timeline. Kyiv applied for membership last year, but the U.S., the alliance’s unofficial leader, largely has sidestepped talks of how or when Ukraine might join, instead focusing on boosting Kyiv’s security and military strength. Zelensky said some in NATO were unwilling to admit Ukraine owing to fear of Russia. But pressure is growing on the alliance to offer concrete security guarantees and a path to membership.
Zelensky said he didn’t expect Ukraine to join NATO while fighting continued, but wanted a pledge that it would be admitted after the war. “If we are not given a signal in Vilnius, I believe there is no point for Ukraine to be at this summit,” he said. Asked whether he thought he would get such a signal, he replied: “I honestly don’t know.”
Zelensky said he was grateful to Western countries for supplying weapons systems, but that deliveries should be faster and in greater numbers as delays were costing lives.
—Max Colchester contributed to this article.
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