KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed in his New Yr’s deal with on Sunday (Dec 31) to wreak “wrath” towards Russian forces in 2024, regardless of what he mentioned had been makes an attempt to “undermine” help for Kyiv.
His message got here lower than 72 hours after Moscow launched a barrage of missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities, killing 39 folks in one of many greatest aerial assaults for the reason that conflict started.
“Subsequent 12 months, the enemy will really feel the wrath of home manufacturing,” Zelenskyy mentioned in his televised deal with, which featured clips of Ukrainian artillery and fighter jets.
Ukraine could have no less than “1,000,000” further drones in its arsenal subsequent 12 months, Zelenskyy added, in addition to F-16 fighter jets delivered by its Western companions.
“Our pilots are already mastering F-16 jets, and we will certainly see them in our skies,” he mentioned, “In order that our enemies can definitely see what our actual wrath is.”
With the conflict now coming into its third calendar 12 months, Zelenskyy has urged his Western allies to maintain up help amid growing indicators of fatigue with the battle.
“Ukrainians are stronger than any intrigues, any makes an attempt to decrease world solidarity, to undermine the coalition of our allies,” Zelenskyy cautioned in his message.
Regardless of billions of {dollars}’ price of Western weapons, Ukraine struggled to make a significant breakthrough in its 2023 counteroffensive towards invading Russian forces.
Moscow has in the meantime ramped up strain alongside the frontlines, capturing the japanese city of Marinka earlier in December and pushing for management of Kupiansk within the northeast.
Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t broach the conflict in Ukraine throughout his New Yr’s Eve deal with, which was noticeably scaled again in comparison with final 12 months’s.