Ukrainian Forces Will Have To Retreat Without U.S. Aid, Zelenskiy Says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says that if Ukraine does not get promised U.S. military aid that has been blocked by political disputes in Congress, its forces will have to retreat "in small steps."

"If there is no U.S. support, it means that we have no air defense, no Patriot missiles, no jammers for electronic warfare, no 155-milimeter artillery rounds," he told The Washington Post in an interview published on March 29.

"It means we will go back, retreat, step by step, in small steps," he said. "We are trying to find some way not to retreat."

If the front line remains stable, he said Ukraine can arm and train new brigades to conduct a new counteroffensive later this year. But if the line breaks, "the Russians could go to the big cities."

The interview was the latest in a series that Zelenskiy has conducted with Western media outlets to urge Congress to pass a massive bill containing billions of dollars in military aid that the Biden administration proposed six months ago.

Zelenskiy spoke by phone with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican-Louisiana) on March 28 to appeal for the "critically important" aid, saying it was needed to help Kyiv fend off escalating Russian attacks.

The U.S. Senate last month passed a supplementary spending bill that allocates some $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, but Johnson has not brought the bill up for a vote in the House of Representatives, where his party holds only a slim majority and includes right-wing Republicans who want to force Congress to prioritize border security.

Zelenskiy briefed Johnson on the battlefield situation, specifically the "dramatic increase in Russia's air terror" in the call, noting that in the past week Ukrainian cities and communities had been hit by 190 rockets, 140 Shahed drones, and 700 anti-aircraft missiles.

Army and intelligence officers check the place where a possible drone fell in Romania, close to the Ukrainian border, the night before, on March 29.

The sweeping missile and drone strikes -- the biggest of which came on March 22 -- have already caused major damage to Ukraine’s energy sector, forcing Kyiv to halt power exports and rely on imports. DTEK lost about 50 percent of its capacity after being hit by Russian attacks, Ukrainian power distributor Yasno said this week.

Russia missiles and drones earlier on March 29 hit three DTEK thermal power plants, damaging facilities, the company said, as Moscow’s forces launched fresh attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector.

"The equipment was severely damaged. After the attack ended, the power engineers promptly started to repair the damage," the company said on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukrainian power grid operator Ukrenerho reported earlier that Russian forces “struck again at energy facilities in a massive and combined attack” overnight, damaging “thermal and hydroelectric power plants in the central and western regions."

Ukrenerho added that emergency shutdowns were applied in the country's southeastern Dnipropetrovsk Province, while power facilities were also hit in the Poltava and Cherkasy regions.

In the morning on March 29, Ukrainian television reported that explosions were heard in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi regions and the city of Dnipro as Russian cruise missiles were spotted in Ukrainian air space.

At least five people, including a 5-year-old, were wounded in Russian strikes on the Kamianske district near Dnipro that targeted both infrastructure and private homes, regional officials said.

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Two of the wounded -- one in serious condition -- were hospitalized, while three others including the child were receiving outpatient treatment, said Serhiy Lysak, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration. Three summer houses were destroyed, and four houses were partially damaged in the attack, Lysak added.

The Ukrainian military said its air-defense forces had destroyed 58 drones from a total of 60 launched by Russia overnight, along with 26 of 39 missiles.

In neighboring Poland, Polish and allied aircraft were activated early on March 29 after Russia launched missile strikes on Ukraine, the Operational Command of the country’s armed forces said.

"Polish and allied aircraft are operating in Polish airspace, which may result in increased noise levels, especially in the southeastern part of the country," the Command said on the social media platform X. The southeastern part of Poland borders Ukraine.

With reporting by Reuters