West 'afraid' of both Russian and Ukrainian defeat — Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has strongly criticised Western countries which he said supported Ukraine but were "afraid" of any clear defeat for Russia.

"We are in a nonsense situation where the West is afraid that Russia will lose the war. And it does not want Ukraine to lose it," Zelenskyy told the AFP news agency in an interview aired on Saturday.

He said his army needed more men to boost the forces' morale, a rare acknowledgment from the Ukrainian leader.

Ukraine has ceded ground to Russian forces since late last year, due to manpower shortages that forced the government to pass a mobilisation law.

"We need to staff the reserves... A large number of [brigades] are empty," Zelenskyy added.

Many Ukrainian soldiers have been fighting for over two years without the possibility to be discharged.

With no end to the war in sight, the army is struggling to recruit, while fighters are growing exhausted and angry at the lack of rotation.

"We need to do this so that the guys have a normal rotation. Then their morale will be improved," Zelensky said.

"It is a matter of their physical strength and justice. This requires that reserves be prepared," he continued.

Russian forces are "five to ten kilometres from the border to the point where we stopped them.. . I won't say it's a great success [for Russia] but we have to be sober and understand that they are going deeper into our territory."

"They want to attack [but] they understand that (attacking) Kharkiv is very difficult. It is a big city, and they understand that we have forces that will fight for a long time."

"If they are stopped, they will not die in millions for the sake of Kharkiv."

Attack on Kiev?

"[Russians] They don't have the forces [for] a full-scale offensive on the capital like the one they had at the beginning of the invasion, " Zelenskyy noted.

"I believe that today, we have about twenty-five percent of what we need to defend Ukraine. I'm talking about air defence."

"As for the aircraft, I say this openly, so that Russia does not have air superiority, our fleet should have 120 to 130 modern aircraft."

"In total we need this fleet of F-16s in the number I am talking about in order to have parity," the Ukrainian leader said.

Increase the troops

In reference to French President Emmanuel Macron's call for a truce during the Paris games, Zelenskyy said: "I said: Emmanuel, we can't believe it. Let's pretend that there is some kind of ceasefire.

First of all, we don't trust Putin. Second, he won't withdraw his troops.

Third... tell me, I told Emmanuel, who can guarantee that Russia will not use this time to bring its forces to our territory?"

"We are against any truce that plays into the hands of the enemy," he said.

Call to China

Zelenskyy also urged China to take part in Switzerland Peace Summit.

Chinese leaders "live a little bit with the feeling that if Russia loses the war, it is not a loss for Russia, but a victory for the United States."

"For them, it is a victory for the West. And they want to find a balance between the two... That's why I would like to see China involved in the Peace Summit" on June 15 and 16 in Switzerland.

The involvement of global players like China is important because "they have influence over Russia and the more such countries we have on our side... the more Russia will have to deal with this," Zelenskyy concluded.