Russia

Putin: No Tangible Results from Ukraine's 'Counteroffensive', Kiev Suffering 71,000 in Losses

Ukraine launched its overly-hyped counteroffensive against Russian forces in early June after several delays. Citing the needs of this faltering campaign, Kiev urged its Western donors to step up military and financial aid.
Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin said there were no results of the Ukrainian counteroffensive and that Kiev had lost about 71,000 soldiers. Putin, commenting on Ukraine's counteroffensive, said that sometimes there is an impression that these are not their people when they throw them into battle.

"Ukraine is conducting a so-called counteroffensive. Right now, we won't say where it's a failure or not a failure, but there are no tangible results... There are losses, big losses. Since the start of the counteroffensive, 71,000 people have been killed," Putin said.

Answering a question about the possibility of any cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, Putin said that Russia cannot stop the hostilities if Ukraine is holding the counteroffensive.
Putin added that the delivery of cluster munitions to the Kiev regime hasn't changed anything on the battlefield.
According to President Vladimir Putin, Russian forces have destroyed 543 tanks and some 18,000 armored vehicles belonging to the Ukrainian military during the 'counteroffensive'.
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The Russian president also said that there is a "forced mobilization" in Ukraine, describing the process as "one wave after another."
Regarding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s law banning Kiev-Moscow negotiations, Putin said that everything might change if Washington makes such decisions.

"As for the negotiation process, if the United States believes that Ukraine is ready for negotiations, then let them cancel the Ukrainian president's decree that prohibits negotiations," Putin stressed.

A now-captured Ukrainian sabotage group, who sought to blow up power lines in Russia, has admitted that instructors from the United Kingdom had trained them, President Putin said, adding that it seems like they are provoking Russia to strike Ukrainian nuclear facilities.

“During the clash, the FSB [Russia’s Federal Security Service] captured several people, [some] were eliminated, the rest were taken prisoner, it turned out that this was a sabotage group belonging to the Ukrainian special services. Interrogations are underway, which indicate that their mission was to cause damage to one of our nuclear power plants, to blow up power lines in order to ultimately disrupt the operation of the power plant. This is not their first attempt,” Putin said.

The Russian president added that Ukrainian saboteurs have admitted that they were trained by the British instructors during questioning.
“Do they even understand what they are playing with or not? Why are they provoking us to take some kind of retaliatory action against Ukrainian nuclear facilities, nuclear power plants?” Putin emphasized.
The Russian head of state also said that he is not ruling out that the UK has no idea what their intelligence services are doing in Ukraine.
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Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Ukrainian armed forces have failed to achieve any of their goals during the three months of counteroffensive.
Ukraine launched its much-touted counteroffensive against Russian forces in early June after multiple postponements. Citing the counteroffensive's needs, Kiev pushed its Western donors to ramp up military and financial aid.
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