Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied today that the war with Russia has reached a “stalemate” and said more cooperation with allies was needed to strengthen his country’s air defenses.

His comments came days after the chief of the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, General Valery Zaluzny, said in an op-ed that the war was moving into a new stage of static war of attrition, one that could allow Moscow to regain its military power.

“It’s been a while and people are tired. But it’s not a stalemate. Russia controls the airwaves. We care about our military,” Zelensky said during a press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The president of the Commission is in Ukraine for the sixth time and four days before the presentation by the Commission of the reports on the enlargement, on 8 November.

Zelensky acknowledged that there have been difficulties in the war, which is already 21 months old, and that Kiev has yet to score major successes in its counteroffensive.

But he said Ukrainian troops had no choice but to keep fighting and called for more support from Western allies, especially in relation to air defence.

Global attention to the war in Gaza has boosted Russian hopes to shift the focus away from the invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky said.

Russia “realized that the focus would shift away from Ukraine,” he said, but expressed confidence that Ukraine would successfully face this challenge.

As he said, his country has already experienced very difficult situations in which Ukraine was not the center of attention.

“But we managed to deal with this situation,” Zelensky noted.