Ukraine expects more armored from the West before launching its long-awaited counteroffensive to retake Russian-held territory, as the president said Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview published today.

“We still need a little more time,” Zelensky said in an interview with European broadcasters, according to Britain’s BBC.

Ukrainian forces have already received enough equipment from Western allies for a campaign, but some of the armored vehicles promised to them are still arriving. If we wait a little longer, the losses will be reduced, he said.

“With [αυτά που έχουμε] we can move forward and be successful,” he said. “But we would lose a lot of people. I think this is unacceptable. So we have to wait. We need additional time,” Zelensky said, according to the BBC.

The war in Ukraine is at a turning point, with the Kyiv to prepare to launch a new counterattack after six months that he kept his forces on the defensivewhile Russia launched a major winter offensive that failed to achieve significant territorial gains.

Western allies are sending hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles to Ukraine to counterattack and have trained thousands of Ukrainian soldiers abroad.

Moscow’s main target for months is the small city Bahamut in eastern Ukraine, which he has come close to seizing but not quite capturing, in what would be the only prize after months of Europe’s bloodiest ground battle since World War II.

Ukraine has recently announced successes on the outskirts of the city. A Ukrainian unit and the head of Russia’s private mercenary army, Wagner, say a Russian brigade abandoned its positions on Tuesday, surrendering a strip of land southwest of Bakhmut.

The commander of the ground forces of Ukraine said yesterday Wednesday that the Russian forces they retreated in places up to 2 km on the front line.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has not commented on the reports, but in comments overnight the Kremlin spokesman admitted that the war is “very difficult”.

He said he had no doubt that Bahamut “will be captured and will remain under control.”

In Brussels, NATO’s top military official said the war will increasingly be a battle between large numbers of poorly trained Russian troops with outdated equipment and a smaller Ukrainian force with better Western weapons and equipment.

Admiral Rob Bauer, a Dutch officer who heads NATO’s military commission, said Russia is developing T-54 tanks — an old model designed in the years after World War II.