KYIV, Ukraine
President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that there was no end in sight to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as fatigue builds among Kyiv's allies nearly two years into the war and the Kremlin voices growing confidence of victory.
Zelensky said he had turned
down a request from the military — for now — to mobilize as many as 500,000
Ukrainians for the army, an unpopular proposal that could hit his worsening
poll ratings among Ukrainians.
His meeting with local and
foreign journalists wraps a difficult year in Ukraine, with Kyiv's forces under
pressure on the front and allies wavering on military and financial backing.
"No one knows the
answer," Zelensky told reporters in response to a question of whether the
war with Russia could end next year.
"Even respected people,
our commanders and our Western partners, who say that this is a war for many
years, they do not know," he said.
The question of how long
Western countries will provide essential support for Kyiv has grown
increasingly urgent.
Zelensky last week embarked on
a tour of Western countries to make the case for more military and political
support as Russia's invasion grinds closer to its two-year-anniversary in
February.
But he failed to convince the
U.S. Congress to immediately approve $60 billion in support, while in Brussels,
Hungarian leader Viktor Orban blocked and aid package of around 50 billion
euros ($55 billion).
Zelensky said Tuesday that he
wanted to organize talks with Orban to "find solutions" to their
differences, and voiced confidence that Washington would follow through on aid.
"I am confident that the
United States will not betray us," he said.
With elections looming in the
United States next year, Zelensky acknowledged that the result of the ballot
could have a "very strong impact" on the course of the war, saying
the Republican favorite Donald Trump "will surely have a different
policy" from Joe Biden.
Those setbacks on the
diplomatic front come in the wake of a disappointing counteroffensive that Kyiv
launched in June using Western-supplied tanks and weapons stockpiled over
months.
Responding to growing
weariness over the war, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Tuesday that the
world had become "jaded" by the Ukraine conflict, where war crimes
continue to be committed "primarily by the forces of the Russian Federation."
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