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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Alexander Butler,Andy Gregory,Athena Stavrou and Matt Mathers

Ukraine-Russia war – live: Zelensky sure of battlefield success as Putin’s ‘third wave’ advance bogged down

REUTERS

Aftermath of Russian missile strike on Ukraine mail depot that killed six

Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is certain that Ukraine will have success in its war against Russia and insisted that Kyiv has a plan for the year head, as he defended the slow pace of his country’s counteroffensive.

“I am sure that we’ll have success,” the Ukrainian president told Reuters, adding: “We’ll try to show the result this year. We don’t need to surprise everybody in the world, we need this for ourselves.”

His comments came as a top Donbas military official said that Russia’s “third wave” advance near Avdiivka been bogged down on sodden land, with several days of rain having for the moment ruled out any new Russian advance.

“We’ve had nearly a week of heavy rain,” Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka’s military administration told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne. “The terrain is too difficult and equipment cannot move.”

Elsewhere, the Kremlin has again warned of the risk of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons being used amid the war, blaming a “deterioration in global security” as a “the natural consequence of the United States’ destructive policies”.

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