Ukraine is ready to launch a long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia but fears large casualties due to Moscow's superior air power, President Volodydmyr Zelensky said in comments published today.
Ukraine has said it is preparing for a major offensive against Moscow's occupation forces for months, but Mr Zelensky has repeatedly warned that Kyiv needs more time and weapons.
"A large number of soldiers will die" if Kyiv is not given the weapons to counter Russian air power, he said.
While Kyiv was "ready" for the offensive and believes it will succeed, the Ukrainian leader said it would be "dangerous" to launch without more Western help to counter Russian air attacks.
He spoke as the capital was this week hit by a series of aerial assaults, including a rare daytime one.
"Everyone knows perfectly well that any counteroffensive without air superiority is very dangerous," Mr Zelensky said.
"Imagine the feeling of a soldier who knows that he doesn't have a roof and he doesn't understand why neighbouring countries have one."
He said there was only one weapon - the US-made Patriot air defence system - that could protect Ukrainian skies, asking for more to be delivered to Kyiv.
"The reality is 50 Patriots will, for the most part, prevent people from dying."
He said Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched the invasion of Ukraine in February last year, "should be afraid of the strength of the world".
He called him a "cornered animal, he is afraid to lose his life".
Mr Zelensky also expressed frustration at Western leaders ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius next month, as pressure has grown to grant Ukraine a roadmap for joining the alliance.
"If we are not acknowledged and given a signal in Vilnius, I believe there is no point for Ukraine to be at this summit," he said.
He acknowledged that Kyiv understood it was not possible to join NATO during the Russian invasion.
The US newspaper also showed footage of Mr Zelensky in a white gown visiting a wounded soldier in hospital who had lost both hands.
Blinken mocks Russian military
Elsewhere, America's top diplomat insisted that a strong Ukraine was a prerequisite for talks with Russia, hoping to pre-empt pressure for a quick ceasefire that he warned would bring only a "Potemkin" or fake peace.
In a speech in Finland yesterday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the war was a "case study in failure".
"When you look at President Putin's long-term strategic aims and objectives, there is no question: Russia is significantly worse off today than it was before the full-scale invasion," Mr Blinken said at Helsinki City Hall.
"Where Putin aimed to project strength, he has revealed weakness. Where he intended to divide, he has united," he said.
"The Kremlin often claimed it had the second strongest military in the world - and many believed it. Today, many see Russia's military as the second strongest in Ukraine."
Wagner 'ready to defend Russia's border region'
Meanwhile, the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said that he was ready to send fighters to the Russian Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine and has come under intense shelling.
Thousands have fled villages in southwestern Belgorod after days of attacks that came after an armed incursion from Ukraine.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has been embroiled in a public spat with Russia's regular army and has accused Moscow's military leadership of being unable to defend Belgorod.
"If the defence ministry, in the near future, does not stop what is happening in the Belgorod region.. then of course we will come to defend Russian land," Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner, said on Telegram.
"The civilian population is dying in Belgorod," Prigozhin said, adding he would not wait for an "invitation" to deploy his fighters there.
Mr Prigozhin has said that his fighters have mostly left the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut that Wagner said it captured last month in the longest and bloodiest battle of the conflict.
Two killed in shelling of Russian region on Ukraine border
It comes as Ukrainian shelling has killed two people in Belgorod, according to the border region's governor.
Belgorod border villages have been hit by unprecedented shelling, and the latest deaths bring the overall toll to seven this week.
"Since this morning, the district of Shebekino has been under shelling of the Ukrainian armed forces," said Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
He said an "elderly woman" was killed in the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka and another woman died from her wounds in the village of Bezlyudovka.
Two other people were wounded in the shelling.
Mr Gladkov said that the region had been hit by 500 attacks yesterday, including artillery and rocket fire.
The Shebekino area has been the hardest hit by the shelling, and residents from the area have been pouring in to displacement centres in the regional capital of Belgorod.
On Thursday, the Russian army said it had used its air force and artillery to repel an attempt from the Ukrainian army to invade Belgorod.
