Pulling forces from eastern Ukraine would put Slovyansk, Kramatorsk at risk — Zelenskyy

The president was asked why Ukraine does not redeploy more of its troops towards making a decisive push in Zaporizhzhya Oblast.

“Regarding the overstretching of forces; we have the east — does anyone understand how many people there are, how many invaders are in the east; approximately 200,000,” said Zelenskyy.

“The proposal is this: let us take our Armed Forces from there and rotate them somewhere else… After this, it will be as follows: a few days — Slovyansk, Kramatorsk [would fall]. Then they [Russian forces] will go towards Pavlohrad, Dnipro. They cut off coastal areas.”

He reiterated that Ukraine is determined to not cede land to Russia.

“We will not give up Kharkiv, or Donbas, or Pavlohrad, or Dnipro; all the world's analysts should not rely on this,” Zelenskyy added.

On Aug. 22, the NYT reported that Western officials believe that the Ukrainian military is too dispersed and should focus on the main counter-offensive in the south of the country.