President Zelensky's optimist has always been one of Ukraine's strengths since the start of the war in trying to keep its troops' morale up, but a military expert believes he went too far on Monday in mentioning that the war could end by the end of the year.

“He is very optimistic, maybe a little too much. Ukrainian forces were subjected to more than 70 days of bombardment, which severely affected their ability to respond. They have completely exhausted their artillery resources,” said Simon Leduc, a former military intelligence officer, in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.

The fight between David and Goliath continues. On the one hand, Russia bombs non-stop and on the other hand, the ammunition is missing to even consider a response.

“The Ukrainians mentioned that about 1000 shells fall every hour. It's a lot of artillery that falls constantly and the soldiers receive the shots without having the ability to respond, "he said.

Strike in a mall

In addition, the Russian strikes which have so far killed 16 people in a shopping center in Kremenchuk, in central Ukraine, were primarily intended to destroy military equipment, believes this specialist.

"We don't send bombs like that for fun since Russia doesn't have many of them. If we send these bombs, it is not to cause deaths in a shopping center in a city the size of Sherbrooke. This is possibly because there were weapon systems hidden there. Ukraine often uses this kind of strategy to hide their defense systems in places where in the event of a strike, there would be repercussions on the diffusion of the message in the media of the world”, underlined the former military intelligence officer.