Ukraine can still deliver battlefield results this year, Zelenskiy says

By Alessandra Galloni

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday Ukraine would still try to deliver battlefield results by the end of the year and that he remained sure Kyiv would eventually have success in the war despite difficulties at the front.

Acknowledging the slow progress of Kyiv's counteroffensive in the occupied south in an interview by video link at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York, he also touted a Ukrainian battlefield plan for 2024 that he said he could not disclose.

His tone contrasted with the gloomier assessment last week of his commander-in-chief who said the fighting now in its 21st month might be heading towards a stalemate and a war of attrition that could play into Russia's hands.

"We have a plan. We have very concrete cities, very (concrete) directions where we go. I can't share all the details but we have some slow steps forward on the south, also we have steps on the east," he said.

"And some, I think good steps ... near Kherson region. I am sure we'll have success. It's difficult."

Ukrainian forces have been trying to establish a bridgehead on the eastern bank of the vast Dnipro river in Kherson region, swathes of which were liberated in Ukraine's last rapid counteroffensive almost exactly a year ago.

Zelenskiy emphasised the need for Ukrainians to remain united, something he said Western leaders could help with as the war grinds on with a winter of air strikes looming and questions swirling over the sustainability of Western military aid.

Careful to make clear Kyiv was deeply grateful for military assistance from the West, without which he said Ukraine could not keep up battlefield results, he added that decisions on providing that support were "sometimes made a bit slow".

Asked if Kyiv feared Donald Trump potentially returning to the White House after next year's election, he said it was up to U.S. citizens to elect a new president and that he could not say if his election would be good or bad.

But some voices in the U.S. Republican party were a cause for concern among some Ukrainians who fear a change in U.S. policy towards Ukraine, he said.

"Some voices from Republicans are now really dangerous. Of course our people are afraid of such voices," he said.

On the diplomatic front, he acknowledged that the unfolding war in Gaza had distracted global attention from Ukraine's plight, but said it was important to keep up support for Ukraine whose defeat would prompt dozens of millions of migrants.

'VERY IMPORTANT SIGNAL'

He spoke in the interview hours after the European Union's executive published a report on Ukraine's progress towards membership, recommending the trade bloc's members agree to launch accession talks once conditions are met.

He said the report had made Wednesday a "successful day" for Ukraine and sent a "very important signal", noting that Kyiv had "done a lot" of anti-corruption reform that was crucial not only for the country's European Union bid.

"The reforms are also fighting with the old system. First of all we do it for us, for our people, we need it, he said.

The reforms are vital also for Ukraine's chances of attracting billions of dollars of assistance to help rebuild a country devastated by Russia's February 2022 invasion. He said he was confident Ukraine could ensure post-war reconstruction was corruption-free.

He called for funds to be taken Russian assets that were frozen after the invasion and poured into the rebuilding of Ukraine.

"We began to work on it, we have progress on that, we began to use now interests on some of these assets. We need joint decision to hold these money which are frozen now and take these money for renovation."

To view the live broadcast of the World Stage go to the Reuters NEXT news page: https://www.reuters.com/world/reuters-next/

(Additional reporting by Olena Harmash, Yuliia Dysa; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Alison Williams)