Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 18 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine** Vladimir Zelensky complained on the 17th that the United States and other Western countries did not provide sufficient military assistance to Ukraine, resulting in the forced withdrawal of the Ukrainian army from Avdeyevka, an important town in the Donetsk region.
Zelensky said at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that the battle situation in Avdeyevka proves that the combat operations of the Ukrainian army are "only constrained by" whether the strength of the Ukrainian army is sufficient, and "artificially makes Ukraine lack **, especially artillery shells and long-range strike capabilities" causing the Russian side to "adapt to the current combat intensity".
The 60th Munich Security Conference opened in Munich, Germany, on February 16 and will discuss multiple global security challenges, including the Ukraine crisis and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Fan Zelensky communicated with Joseph Biden of the United States on the same day, and met with U.S. Deputy Kamala Harris in Munich. The White House said in a statement that due to the "inaction" of the US Congress, the ammunition supply of the Ukrainian army became more and more tight and had to be "rationed", and finally the Ukrainian side was forced to withdraw its troops from Avdeyevka. During the call, Biden "stressed the need for Congress to urgently pass" a bill to provide aid to Ukraine.
Biden said he told Zelensky during the call that he was "confident" that Ukraine would receive military aid from the United States.
Ukrainian Governor Dmitry Kuleba also met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Germany. Kuleba wrote on social media on the 17th that he asked the United States for urgent assistance, and what Ukraine needs most is ammunition, air defense** and long-range strikes**, including army tactical missile systems with a range of more than 300 kilometers.
This is a view of the Dnieper River after snow in Kyiv, Ukraine, November 22, 2023. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Peter Drucker) The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Alexander Syrsky, announced in the early morning of the 17th that the Ukrainian army decided to withdraw from Avdeyevka so as not to be surrounded and annihilated by the Russian army. Reuters said the capture of Avdeyevka was the biggest victory for the Russian army since it conquered the key traffic point in May last year.
The commander of the Ukrainian army in the Avdeyevka region, Alexander Tarnavsky, said that the ratio of Ukrainian and Russian artillery fire in the fighting ground was 1 to 10. "Now (the Ukrainian army) will replenish it. They will wait for the relevant ** equipment, and the existing armament is completely insufficient," Zelensky said in Munich, "The Russian army has long-range **, and ours (long-range**) is completely insufficient." ”
After the escalation of the Ukraine crisis in February 2022, the United States "added fuel to the fire" and became the largest military aid country to Ukraine. However, due to the political wrestling between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party in the United States, the United States has "cut off the supply" of military aid to Ukraine. The U.S. Foreign Aid Act, which is worth tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, is currently stuck in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Mike Johnson, Speaker of the US House of Representatives and a Republican, said on the 14th that the House of Representatives is "not in a hurry" to consider and pass the aid bill.
Some Republicans oppose continued aid to Ukraine. Donald Trump, a former Republican who pursues an "America First" policy and participated in this year's elections in the United States, said that aid should be provided to Ukraine in the form of loans and cannot be "given for nothing". (Hui Xiaoshuang).