President Zelensky: “Russia has not lost this many planes in any war in decades”

IN his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that his country’s armed forces had downed 200 of Russia’s planes and destroyed more than Russian 3,000 tanks.

Speaking to the nation on Friday, May 13, Mr Zelensky, who is set to join the World Economic Forum’s ‘Davos’ meeting towards the end of May, revealed the damage Russia had suffered at the hands of the Ukrainian army – which includes the loss of 200 planes.

“Today (May 13) we can report on the 200th downed Russian military aircraft,” he said.

“Russia has not lost so many aircraft in any war in decades. And Russia has lost almost 27,000 soldiers, many of them young conscripts. Russia has lost more than three thousand tanks, armoured combat vehicles, a large number of conventional military vehicles, helicopters, drones and all its prospects as a state.”

He added: “No one today can predict how long this war will last. But we are doing everything we can to liberate our land quickly. This is our priority – to work every day to make the war shorter.

“However, this depends, unfortunately, not only on our people, who are already doing the maximum. It also depends on our partners. On European countries, on the countries of the whole free world.”

The 44-year-old also said that Ukraine is continuing to restore de-occupied territories.

“As of today, 1015 settlements have been de-occupied, which is plus six in the past 24 hours. We return electricity, water supply, communications, transport, and social services there. It is important.”

“Of course, we remember every city and every community that is still under occupation. Kherson, Melitopol, Berdyansk, Enerhodar, Mariupol and all cities and towns of Donbas… The gradual liberation of the Kharkiv region proves that we will not leave anyone to the enemy,” he said.

As noted by the president, Russia continues to launch attacks on the Kharkiv region.

In fact, Ukrainian intelligence has revealed that Russian troops have been destroying bridges in the Kharkiv region – and could launch similar attacks in the Kherson region – to ‘complicate the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’.

Vadim Skibitsky, a representative of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence’s Main Intelligence Directorate, said on Friday, May 13: “Our assessment is very simple: in general, the Kherson region is a very important region for the Russian Federation, we understand this.

“First of all, it is a land bridge that connects the Russian Federation with the occupied Crimea, and secondly, it is an element of ensuring the life of Crimea – this is water, this is electricity.”

He added: “Our nuclear power plant was seized for a reason, and, accordingly, Russia will do everything possible to hold on to this territory.”

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