Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged that the Israel-Gaza conflict is diverting attention from the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict, a strategic aim pursued by Russia, which initiated a comprehensive invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Despite recent assessments by Ukraine's top military general suggesting a stalemate in the fighting within Ukraine, President Zelensky denied this, emphasizing that Ukraine's counter-offensive in the southern region has faced significant challenges.

This situation has raised concerns about war weariness among Ukraine's Western allies, with indications of mounting reluctance in some capital cities to continue providing advanced weaponry and financial support to Ukraine.

In a separate development, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov confirmed the tragic loss of Ukrainian soldiers from the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade "Zakarpattia (Transcarpathia)" and ordered a thorough investigation into the incident.

He did not specify the exact number of casualties resulting from a reported Russian missile strike in the southern Zaporizhzhia region on Friday.

Initial reports in Ukrainian media and from Russian military bloggers had indicated that over 20 Ukrainian service members were killed during an award ceremony in a village near the front lines.

Additionally, Ukraine's military reported a successful strike on "sea and port infrastructure" at a shipbuilding plant in Crimea, Ukraine's southern peninsula that was unlawfully annexed by Russia in 2014.

The Russian defense ministry later stated that they had intercepted 13 out of 15 Ukrainian missiles fired at the plant in the city of Kerch in eastern Crimea, causing damage to a Russian ship.

Speaking at Saturday's briefing in Kyiv with visiting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Mr Zelensky said: "It's clear that the war in the Middle East is taking away the focus" from Ukraine.

He said Russia wanted this focus to be "weakened", but stressed that "everything is in our powers".

Mr Zelensky was also asked to comment on this week's assessment by Ukraine's chief military commander Valery Zaluzhny that the war was now moving to a "positional" or static stage, and this would benefit Moscow by "allowing it to rebuild its military power".

"Everyone is getting tired and there are different opinions," Mr Zelensky replied, adding: "But this is not a stalemate."

He admitted that Russia was "controlling the skies" and that Ukraine urgently needed US-made F-16 warplanes and advanced anti-aircraft defences to change the situation.

The Ukrainian leader recalled that last year, there had also been a lot of talk about a stalemate on the vast battlefield in Ukraine - but he pointed to Kyiv's subsequent major military victories in the north-eastern Kharkiv region and Kherson in the south.

Mr Zelensky also rejected media reports that he was coming under growing pressure to consider negotiations with Russia.

"Today, no-one among EU, US leaders and others - our partners - is putting pressure for us to now sit down to negotiate with Russia, and give away something to it. This will not happen."

Moscow on Thursday also commented on Mr Zaluzhny's assessment, with Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman saying the current battlefield situation was not a "stalemate".

"All the [war] goals that were set must be achieved," Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Ukraine must realise that "even talking about any prospects for the Kyiv regime's victory on the battlefield is absurd".

President Putin has repeatedly claimed that Ukraine's counter-offensive had failed, while his Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said this week that Kyiv was losing the war despite supplies of new weapons from Nato allies.

Meanwhile, the UK defence intelligence said in its latest report on Saturday that Russia "has likely lost around 200 armoured vehicles during its assaults on the Donbas town of Avdiivka" in eastern Ukraine.

"It is plausible that Russia has suffered several thousand personnel casualties around the town since the start of October 2023.

"Russia's leadership continues to demonstrate a willingness to accept heavy personnel losses for marginal territorial gains," the report said.

Moscow has in recent weeks been trying to advance in eastern and north-eastern Ukraine - but Ukraine's military says all the attacks have been rebuffed.

The claims by the two warring sides have not been independently verified.