The highly anticipated counteroffensive by Ukraine is aimed at recapturing land occupied by Russia and not at taking Russian territory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday.
He disputed the suggestion that Ukraine would consider trying to capture areas of Russia to use as bargaining chips in negotiations to end the war.
“We don’t attack Russian territory, we liberate our own legitimate territory,” Zelenskyy said during a news conference in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The Washington Post reported the potential incursion into Russia, based on documents exposed in U.S. intelligence leaks.
“We have neither the time nor the strength [to attack Russia],” Zelenskyy said, according to an official interpreter. “And we also don’t have weapons to spare, with which we could do this.”
Zelenskyy was visiting allies to solicit further support ahead of Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive designed to push back Russian forces and liberate territory taken since the start of the invasion in February 2022.
He met Saturday with Pope Francis and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni.
Germany, the second biggest aid donor to Ukraine after the U.S., just announced a $3 billion package of military aid for Ukraine that includes tanks, anti-aircraft systems and ammunition.
Western governments that have provided arms to Ukraine have insisted the weaponry not be used to attack targets in Russia.
“We are preparing a counterattack for the illegally occupied areas based on our constitutionally defined legitimate borders, which are recognized internationally,” Zelenskyy said.
After his meeting with the German Chancellor, Zelenskyy called Germany “a reliable ally” on Twitter.
“German air defense systems, artillery, tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are saving Ukrainian lives and bringing us closer to victory,” he tweeted.
Scholz said his country has given Ukraine some 17 billion euros in bilateral aid, and he called on Russia to withdraw its troops and end the war.
“We will support you for as long as necessary,” Scholz told Zelenskyy.
The two leaders said in a joint statement that they supported efforts to bring those responsible for atrocities in Ukraine to justice.
They also pledged to make sure sanctions against Russia are upheld and to consider using frozen Russian assets to pay for damages in Ukraine.
Ukraine and Germany have overcome earlier tensions linked to Germany’s previous close ties to Russia and, after initial hesitation, Germany has supplied Ukraine with sophisticated military hardware, including Leopard 1 and 2 battle tanks and the IRIS-T SLM air-defense system.
Supplies of modern Western weaponry are considered crucial to Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive against Russian troops.
Zelenskyy has said he wanted the help of Western allies to build a so-called fighter jet coalition that would give combat planes to Ukraine to combat Russian forces.
On the ground, fierce fighting raged in Bakhmut, the site of the war’s longest and most deadly battle.
Two Russian military commanders were killed in the eastern Ukrainian city, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday.
Commander Vyacheslav Makarov of the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade was killed leading troops at the front line, and Deputy Commander Yevgeny Brovko died from multiple shrapnel wounds, it said.
The ministry’s announcement was seen as unusual, as it typically does not announce the deaths of military commanders in its daily briefings.
Ukrainian and Russian troops were battling in the north and south of Bakhmut, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Ukraine said Sunday its forces had captured more than 10 Russian positions in Bakhmut’s north and south.
Experts say Bakhmut has limited strategic value, but the battle for the former salt-mining town that began eight months ago has taken on enormous symbolic significance.
The battle for Bakhmut has involved the private paramilitary group Wagner, which has been fighting for Russia, and Wagner’s owner Yevgeny Prigozhin has frequently blamed Moscow for failing to provide enough equipment, arms and ammunition.
Despite the surge of Ukrainian attacks around Bakhmut, Ukrainian officials have downplayed suggestions that the battles marked the start of its counteroffensive.
Elsewhere, five civilians were killed in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region when an undetonated Russian shell exploded.
Also, Russia launched an overnight attack on Ukraine using Iranian-made Shahed explosive drones that wounded more than 30 people, according to the Ukrainian military.
Eighteen of the 23 drones were shot down, but the remaining drones damaged dozens of apartment buildings, private homes and other structures, the military said.