Kiev keeps its Western helpers updated about the situation on the ground, President Zelensky’s senior adviser has said
Ukraine’s top general Valery Zaluzhny (C) during a ceremony, July 28, 2023. © Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP
Western officials are regularly receiving up-to-date reports from the battlefield in Ukraine, President Vladimir Zelensky’s top adviser has said, confirming a report about a recent meeting between Kiev’s top general Valery Zaluzhny and NATO commanders.
“There are a lot of meetings like that,” Mikhail Podoliak told a Ukrainian TV channel Saturday. According to Podoliak, Kiev’s military strategy stays “flexible,” evolving in accordance with the situation on the ground.
“The General Staff is constantly making adjustments, depending on what is happening on the front line,” the adviser said. “Obviously, these adjustments are always being discussed with our partners in order to actualize the deliveries of additional [weapons].”
The Guardian reported on Saturday that “eleven days ago, some of the most senior soldiers in the NATO alliance traveled to a secret location on the Polish-Ukrainian border” to meet with Zaluzhny and “his entire command team.” The goal of the five-hour meeting was to “help reset Ukraine’s military strategy” in light of its sluggish offensive, the newspaper said. Ukrainian and NATO officials reportedly also discussed plans for the winter and beyond.
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Kiev’s much-anticipated offensive, launched in early June, has so far failed to win any significant territory, costing the Ukrainian army heavy losses in men and Western-supplied armor in the process.
The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported recently that US and British officials had disagreements with Ukrainian planners over tactics. It was said that one of the complaints was that the Ukrainian army had dispersed its most-equipped units along the front line, instead of focusing on a concentrated strike in one place.
After Washington’s approval, Denmark and the Netherlands promised last week to send their US-made F-16 fighter planes to Ukraine. The jets have long been on Kiev’s ‘wish list’, as the country hopes to salvage its combat operations.
Russia, meanwhile, has repeatedly warned that Western weapons would not change the course of the conflict, and would only draw NATO closer to open confrontation with Moscow.
