Zelensky asks for more weapons, his intelligence chief threatens Russia with "guerrilla war"

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West to give his country tanks, planes and missiles to repel Russian forces, at a time when the head of Ukrainian intelligence threatened Russia with a guerrilla war, and said that Russia was seeking to divide Ukraine into two parts, like North and South Korea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded that Western countries provide a small part of their military stockpiles to his country, and he wondered, looking very angry, whether these countries fear Moscow.

Several countries have pledged to send anti-armor and anti-aircraft missiles as well as small arms, but Zelensky said Kyiv is not getting what it needs.

"Our country needs tanks, missile defense and anti-ship weapons. This is what our partners have. This (material) is dusty there," he said in a speech delivered via closed-circuit television on Saturday. Not only for Ukraine's freedom, but for Europe's freedom."

He said that Ukraine needs only one percent of NATO planes and one percent of its tanks and will not ask for more.

"We have already waited 31 days. Who is responsible for the Euro-Atlantic community? Is Moscow really still, because of intimidation?"

Zelensky repeatedly insists that Russia will seek further expansion in Europe if Ukraine falls. NATO refuses to accede to his request for a no-fly zone over Ukraine on the grounds that it could lead to a wider war.

Disappointment

Earlier on Sunday, Zelensky spoke with Polish President Andrzej Duda and expressed his disappointment that Russian-made combat aircraft in Eastern Europe had not yet been transferred to Ukraine, Zelensky's office said in a statement.

Zelensky said Poland and the United States had expressed their willingness to make a decision on the planes, but Washington had rejected a surprise offer by Poland to transfer MiG-29 fighter jets to a US base in Germany for use in support of the Ukrainian air force.

"Partition of Ukraine"

For his part, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence service, General Kirillo Budanov, said on Sunday that Russia wants to divide Ukraine into two parts, as happened when the division of Korea into North and South, and vowed to wage a "total" guerrilla war to prevent the division of the country.

In a statement posted on his Facebook account, Budanov said that Russia was trying to "unite the occupied territories into a single entity in the form of a semi-state, which opposes an independent Ukraine."

"After the failures near Kyiv and the impossibility of overthrowing the central government of Ukraine, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has already changed the directions of the main operations to the south and east," the statement added.

He noted that the issue of creating a land corridor to Crimea "is still relevant to the Russian fascist regime", but the main problem of implementing this plan is the "unbreakable" city of Mariupol.

"We are already seeing attempts to create parallel authorities in the occupied territories, forcing people to give up the hryvnia," he added.

"The guerrilla war will start soon, then there will be only one scenario left for the Russians, which is how to survive," Budanov noted.

3.8 million people fled

In another context, the United Nations Human Rights Office said today, Sunday, that 1,119 civilians have died so far, and 1,790 have been injured since Russia began its attack on Ukraine.

The United Nations said in a statement covering the period between the start of the war on February 24 and midnight on March 26 that among the dead were about 15 girls and 32 boys, in addition to 52 children.

She added that the real numbers of casualties are expected to be much higher as a result of the lack of reports from some areas where heavy fighting is taking place, while it is still necessary to verify many reports.

The United Nations said most of the civilians recorded were victims of explosive weapons with wide-area effect, including heavy artillery shelling, multi-barrel missile systems, and rocket and air attacks.

According to the latest statistics announced by the United Nations on Sunday, more than 3 million and 800,000 people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, the United Nations announced on Sunday. The number of border-crossers has decreased significantly since 22 March.

In all, more than 10 million people, more than a quarter of the population, are believed to have fled their homes, some crossing borders to seek refuge in neighboring countries and others finding refuge elsewhere within Ukraine.

The United Nations estimates that about 6.5 million are internally displaced.

On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine, which was followed by angry international reactions and the imposition of "tough" economic and financial sanctions on Moscow.

To end the operation, Russia requires Ukraine to abandon any plans to join military entities, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and to adhere to complete neutrality, which Kyiv considers an "interference in its sovereignty."