Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky admits Kyiv is too weak to reclaim land as Putin’s oil refinery set ablaze
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has admitted that the country’s military is not capable of recovering the territory currently occupied by Russia without diplomatic pressure from Kyiv’s allies.
Speaking to French newspaper Le Parisien, Mr Zelensky said: “We cannot give up our territories. The Ukrainian constitution forbids us to do so. [But] we do not have the strength to recover them.
“We can only count on diplomatic pressure from the international community to force Putin to sit down at the negotiating table.”
It comes as Britain pledged a new £225m package of support for Ukraine, including military, navy and air defence equipment.
On Thursday an oil refinery in the Rostov region of southern Russia has caught fire after being attacked by Ukrainian drones, confirmed local governor Yuri Slyusar.
And earlier Ukraine unveiled a laser weapon capable of downing drones from more than a mile away in a bid to combat Russian aerial attacks.
Colonel Vadym Sukharevsky, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said the laser would be capable of downing aircraft at distances of more than 2km.
