CRITIC’S OF UKRAINE’S slow progress on the battlefield against Moscow’s troops should “shut up”, the country’s foreign minister said today as he attended a meeting of EU counterparts.

“Criticizing the slow pace of the counter-offensive equals to spitting into the face of the Ukrainian soldier who sacrifices his life every day,” Dmytro Kuleba told reporters on sidelines of the EU ministerial meeting held in Toledo, Spain.

“I would recommend all critics to shut up, come to Ukraine and try to liberate one square centimetre by themselves,” he said.

The furious words came after Kuleba thanked EU ministers for their governments’ support so far, and urged them to supply Ukraine with more lethal weapons, long-range missiles, armoured vehicles and air defence systems.

Western capitals, which have already supplied Ukraine with weapons and munitions, have noted the slow and costly pace of the push back against dug-in Russian forces but insist they are sticking with Kyiv for the long term.

Kuleba also said an upcoming September meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks on reviving a Black Sea grain deal was “almost a last chance” for Moscow to come back into the pact.

He talked up an “alternative sea grain corridor” running along Romania’s Black Sea coast, but said air defence systems were needed to protect ships carrying grain before they entered those waters.

Polls open in Russia-occupied territories 

Elsewhere, Kyiv-condemned local elections in Moscow-occupied Ukrainian territories opened today, Russian media reported.

Moscow controls around one-fifth of neighbouring Ukraine’s territory: the Crimea peninsula it annexed in 2014 and parts of the Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Voting was due to take place on September 10 as part of polls held in several Russian regions to elect governors, local parliaments and municipal councils.

Elections in Luhansk and Donetsk voting in a referendum a year ago. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

But occupation authorities in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia organised early elections from Thursday, while voting in Kherson and Lugansk will open on Saturday.

No real opposition is standing as the authorities lead a crackdown on critical voices that intensified after the conflict in Ukraine began in February last year, with leading figures in jail or exile.

In September 2022, Russia annexed the Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions despite not fully controlling any of them following referendums that Kyiv and its Western allies have branded as shams.

Fighting in those areas is still raging as Ukraine pushes a counteroffensive launched in June along a vast front of almost 1,000 kilometres (620 miles).

After weeks of grinding combat, Kyiv is hoping for a major breakthrough in the Zaporizhzhia region after recapturing the village of Robotyne this week.    

© Agence France-Presse