Zelensky: Western weapons are changing balance on the battlefield

Through a video message in the late hours of July 18th, Zelensky announced that they have been released from Russian forces 1,028 settlements and another 2,621 are still under Russian control.

Zelensky said Ukrainian forces “have been able to cause significant logistical losses to invaders”, making it increasingly difficult for the Russian Army to hold positions in the seized territories.

“step by step we are advancing, hindering supplies for invaders, identifying and neutralizing the co-organists. The prospect is clear: the Ukrainian flag will be in all our cities and villages. The only question is the time”, he said.

Valeriy Zaluzhniy, commander of the Ukrainian Army, said the “arrival at the time of the longest-range artillery, such as the system produced in the United States, HIMARS, is helping to change the situation on the battlefield.

“We have managed to stabilise the situation. It's complex, intense, but completely controlled”, Zalusniy said.

“A key factor contributing to maintaining our defence lines and positions is the time coming of M142 HIMARS, a system that carried out precise attacks on enemy control points and fuel and ammunition depot”, he added.

The head of Ukraine's National Security and Protection Council, Olexity Danilov, said that “sot we are in a completely different situation than we were a month ago. Today, thanks to the fact that we've accepted enough weapons from our partners, we've created a security at our current” positions.

From the military administration of the Luhansk region, its leader, Serhiy Hayday, said on July 19th that Western “arms are not functioning 100 percent, but 200 percent because Russian warehouses are being blown up”.

Meanwhile, Russian missiles hit the port city of Odessa, located south of Ukraine. At least six people, including one child, were injured by missile attacks, Odessa's military administration spokesman Serhiy Bratchuk said on July 19th.

Bratchuk said that Odesa has been attacked with seven Calibr-like missiles, which were thrown out of the Black Sea, and six of them have hit civilians' inhabited areas.

A day earlier, Russia carried out air strikes in the eastern town of Torek, killing six people.

On July 18th, United States and Ukraine defence officials discussed the situation on the ground, ahead of the Ukraine Protection Contact Group meeting that will be held later this week.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Olexey Reznikov said via Twitter that he had conducted a telephone conversation with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, with whom they had discussed the framework of the Contact Group's meeting.

We agreed on the agenda, shared information on the weapons coming to Ukraine and others. Secretary Austin had some good news, but we'll let details know later”, Reznikov said.

The next meeting of the Ukrainian Contact Group for Protection will be held on 20 July. 47 states participated in the group's last meeting, which was held in May, and 20 of them reported aid packages in Ukraine's security field.