In his daily video address on Tuesday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had a message for those who tried to "tell the Ukrainian army where to attack first or where to throw back the enemy": "Ukraine values ​​every opinion.

Above all, however, Ukraine values ​​every life very highly.” It will therefore never act like Russia, “which only sends people to hell to fight because they want Moscow to do something within a few days or by a certain date conquer".

Sofia Dreisbach

North American political correspondent based in Washington.

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Reinhard Veser

Editor in Politics.

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Zelenskyi's statement comes in response to criticism leveled out in Ukraine over the increasingly obvious defeat in the Battle of Severodonetsk.

In the past few days, Russian troops in the city have advanced much faster than expected.

At the weekend, the Ukrainian authorities reported for the first time that the attackers had established themselves in individual buildings on the outskirts of the city;

Then on Wednesday morning, the Luhansk oblast chief of government said they controlled about seventy percent of the area of ​​the largely destroyed city.

In view of this advance, allegations had been raised on social media that the army leadership had not sent enough troops and equipment to the area where the fighting was currently fiercest.

Volunteer associations had previously complained that they were being abandoned at the front.

In mid-May, a video of a group of volunteers from Severodonetsk refusing further service in the city due to a lack of equipment, reinforcements and competent commanders, which was distributed via Telegram, caused a great stir: “We are being sent to certain death.” They answered, of course two days later other soldiers from the same unit said nothing was missing, but some comrades probably expected to end up in a health resort.

The episode shows that three months after the Russian attack, the ups and downs of the war, with the successes at Kyiv and Kharkiv on the one hand and the abandonment of Mariupol on the other, are leaving their mark on the Ukrainian armed forces.

Especially since the fierce fighting in the Donbass is not only costly for the Russians, but also for the Ukrainians.

Like Russia, Ukraine does not disclose the exact numbers of its own dead and wounded.

But a statement made by Zelenskyy in an interview with the American television station Newsmax gives an idea of ​​the extent of the losses: "Every day we lose between 60 and 100 soldiers who are killed and about 500 who are wounded," said Zelenskyy.

Opportunities for Ukrainians in the Kherson region

His answer to the critics in the video speech is an indication that against this background the Ukrainian leadership has decided not to hold Severodonetsk at any price.

According to the daily analysis by the American think tank Institute for the Study of War, it looks as if the Ukrainian troops are withdrawing from the city rather than fighting to the end.

The Ukrainian leadership is thus avoiding the mistake made by the Russian leadership in concentrating all its forces on Severodonetsk and the surrounding area because of the prospect of a primarily symbolic success.

Putin's decision opens up opportunities for the Ukrainian military in the Cherson region, which it has apparently recognized and is trying to seize.