‘We Are 6-9 Months Behind’ – Zelensky’s Advisor Responds to Budanov’s Assessment of War’s End Date

Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the Ukrainian President’s Office, has responded to comments by Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ministry of Defense's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR).

In his latest interview, Budanov said Ukraine’s counteroffensive was “out of schedule,” without going into details about the reasons behind it.

“There are objective and subjective reasons – everything is complex. But, sorry, most of the explanations for this are state secrets, and it’s just not for public discussion. Over time, all of this will become clear,” Budanov said.

Podolyak, in an interview with Channel 24 on Thursday, Oct.12, explained in simpler terms that Western weapons arrived too slowly, and this seriously affected Ukraine’s defense.

After military success and swift territorial liberation in the Kharkiv region in 2022, Ukraine started talks with international partners to get more weapons and equipment, especially artillery.

But Podolyak said things got delayed because of logistics and approvals. This meant Ukraine received weapons 3-4 months later than expected.

“Instead of doing it quickly in the fall of 2022, everything unfolded slowly in the fall,” Podolyak said. “We worked out logistics, there were a lot of approvals. Even then, we were out of the delivery schedule. Because instead of receiving weapons in a week, they started receiving them in 3-4 months.”

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The world didn’t react quickly when Russia started attacking Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, even during the winter. Podolyak explained that they wanted to see if it would affect Ukraine.

“They [Western allies] decided to wait and see: will this affect the ability of Ukraine? It did not affect us, we resisted. Then they were shocked, again by Russia's offensive actions, and we were not, absolutely,” Podolyak said.

According to Zelensky’s aide, even when Russia started a massive offensive campaign in the Donetsk region, the world’s response was slow.

"If Ukraine had received weapons faster, we could have defended ourselves better and launched a counterattack. Only after all these events did the weapons finally arrive," he said.

Podolyak is worried that Ukraine is now 6-9 months behind schedule.

"We are 6-9 months behind. Everything is very stretched in time. Budanov is right here. If we had received everything we needed in a month, it would be one story. But getting it in 8 months is a different story," he stated.