Zelensky: War with Russia is 'not a stalemate'

Russia's war against Ukraine is not currently a stalemate, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a front-line interview with U.S. media outlet Fox News that aired Feb. 22.

Zelensky spoke with reporter Bret Baier near the front lines in Kharkiv Oblast, where artillery fire could be heard nearby. Fox News said it was the president's first interview on the front since the beginning of the full-scale war.

"It's not a stalemate," Zelensky told Baier, saying Ukrainian forces are preparing new operations and new offenses.

He specifically highlighted Ukraine's successes in targeting Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

"(Russia) will get some surprises," he said.

Zelensky also said that Russian battlefield losses outweigh Ukrainian casualties.  

"The ratio is one to five," he said. "Meaning one soldier killed in action equals five Russian soldiers killed in action."

The interview aired shortly before the second anniversary of the full-scale invasion, amid a months-long delay in U.S. funding to Ukraine that has called into question the sustainability of Western support for Kyiv's war effort.

The effects of the delays have been felt on the battlefield, with Russia recently winning its first significant victory in months when Ukrainian troops withdrew from Avdiivka on Feb. 17. U.S. President Joe Biden went so far as to blame the fall of Avdiivka on Congress' failure to approve funding.

"Will Ukrainians survive without Congress' support? Of course. But not all of us," Zelensky said in the interview.

He again urged Western partners to provide long-range weapons to help Ukrainian troops counter Russian manpower and air superiority.

"If the partners have those systems, why not be providing them to Ukraine?"

The interview aired two weeks after former Fox News host and far-right commentator Tucker Carlson released an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky appealed to the Western audience, warning that a Russian victory would be "a tragedy for all of us."

"(Putin) will never stop," Zelensky said.

"He will go through Eastern Europe because he wants it. That's his goal."

Zelensky said it was crucial for Ukrainian troops to "be more quick" and "lose all the bureaucracy" going forward.

"Time is money. In our case, it's not money, it's people's lives."

Opinion: In the past 2 years of war, we have all died a little

Where were you that morning when the great war began? Here’s my story: The war spoke to me with the distant rumble of explosions outside the window, but I didn’t believe it, thinking I was living a dream. Then, on the second floor of my friends’ house near Kyiv, the

The Kyiv IndependentAndriy Lyubka