{"id":291011,"date":"2025-07-25T16:19:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T16:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/291011\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T16:19:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T16:19:13","slug":"ukraines-zelenskyy-says-defenses-hold-firm-against-russias-summer-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/291011\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says defenses hold firm against Russia’s summer push"},"content":{"rendered":"

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian forces are holding back Russia\u2019s concerted summer push<\/a> to break through defenses along parts of the front line, Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not advancing. It\u2019s very tough for our guys out there. And it\u2019s tough everywhere,\u201d Zelenskyy told reporters on Thursday, in comments embargoed till Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s also very hard for the Russians \u2014 and that\u2019s good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the war<\/a> now in its fourth year after Russia\u2019s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor, the effort is draining resources on both sides, although Russia has more resources and people to sustain its fight. Ukraine is seeking further support from Western partners.<\/p>\n

Russia has claimed the capture of some villages and hamlets in recent weeks, but no defensively stronger urban areas have fallen to its troops.<\/p>\n

Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups have repeatedly attempted to stage minor incursions near Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region to film symbolic footage, such as raising a Russian flag, but Ukrainian forces have repelled those efforts, Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened five to seven times recently, sometimes with only two or six people. Once they tried to hold a position with 12 people \u2014 and all of them were eliminated by our defenders,\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy described the situation in the northeastern Sumy border region as \u201cmuch better\u201d than in recent months, noting progress by Ukrainian forces over the past six weeks.<\/p>\n

Ukraine wants 10 Patriot missile systems<\/p>\n

Russia has also intensified its bombardment of Ukrainian cities<\/a>, with the second-largest city Kharkiv struck with a powerful glide bomb for a second straight day Friday. Seven people were injured, officials said. On Thursday, 42 were injured.<\/p>\n

Joyce Msuya, the United Nations\u2019 deputy humanitarian chief, told the Security Council on Friday that Ukraine\u2019s humanitarian situation is \u201cdeteriorating\u201d due to expanding Russian attacks on civilian areas across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no safe place left in Ukraine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is working with international partners to secure 10 U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, which can shoot down missiles, with three already confirmed from Germany and Norway. <\/p>\n

The Trump administration will sell the systems, he said, but Ukraine\u2019s task is to find funding for all 10. Each system costs more than $1 billion.<\/p>\n

Ukraine is also seeking to obtain a license to manufacture the Patriot systems itself. <\/p>\n

Kremlin says no summit meeting in sight<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian leader expressed little hope for progress in direct talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine, though he said the Kremlin envoys have begun discussing the possibility of a leaders\u2019 summit with Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need an end to the war, which probably begins with a meeting of leaders. It won\u2019t work any other way with (the Russians),\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin, however, remained set against top-level talks before a potential comprehensive peace agreement is fleshed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cA high-level meeting can and must put a final point in the settlement and seal the modalities and agreements that are yet to be worked out by experts,\u201d Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to act otherwise.\u201d <\/p>\n

Zelenskyy says anti-graft street protests were \u2018legitimate\u2019<\/p>\n

In domestic politics, Zelenskyy said public protests<\/a> against changes earlier this week to Ukraine\u2019s anti-corruption law were \u201clegitimate.\u201d The changes<\/a> threatened the independence of anti-graft watchdogs and also drew rebukes from European Union officials and international rights groups, prompting Zelenskyy to propose new legislation to restore the independence of the anti-graft agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important that society speaks. I respect the opinion of society,\u201d Zelenskyy said. \u201cPeople asked for changes. We responded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Demonstrators gathered for the third day on Thursday evening, but drew a smaller crowd.<\/p>\n

He said those agencies must be \u201ctruly independent,\u201d adding that \u201cthe most important thing in this war is the unity of our state. It is critical not to lose unity.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the risk now remains that the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine\u2019s parliament, will fail to approve the new bill, which could bring even larger crowds to the streets. Zelenskyy expressed confidence that it would pass in a vote scheduled for July 31. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing right now is that the bill exists. It has been registered. I believe it will receive enough votes. I want that to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian forces are holding back Russia\u2019s concerted summer push to break through defenses along…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[7667,32,2000,299,4179,108292,285,332,7661,657,7662,2601,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-291011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-dmitry-peskov","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-joyce-msuya","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-russia","16":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","17":"tag-ukraine","18":"tag-ukraine-government","19":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","20":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114914785031101808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}