Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told CNN he wanted a counteroffensive to have started earlier and had urged Western allies to supplies weapons for that to happen, according to excerpts via a translator released on Wednesday.

"I'm grateful to the U.S. as the leaders of our support but I told them as well as the European leaders that we would like to start our counteroffensive earlier, and we need all the weapons and materiel for that," he was quoted as saying.

"Why? Simply because if we start later, it will go slower."

(Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Sandra Maler)