Vladimir President Putin said he can’t comprehend why Ukraine is throwing its troops into a meat grinder even when there is obviously no hope of a breakthrough against Russian positions.
“I don’t even know why they’re doing this. They’re simply pushing their people to be exterminated. Ukrainian servicemen themselves say that it’s a one-way trip,” Putin said during his year-end press conference on Thursday while discussing the situation at the front in the NATO-Russia proxy war in Ukraine.
“The enemy announced a big counteroffensive, but has not succeeded anywhere,” Putin said, adding that Russian forces are “improving their positions” almost “along the entire line of contact.”
Whether civilians or military personnel are concerned, Russia’s military operation in Ukraine highlights differences between the Russian and Western approaches to modern warfare, says Army Colonel Anatoliy Matviychuk, a veteran retired Soviet and Russian military intelligence officer and analyst with combat experience in Afghanistan and Syria.
“The Western-style of warfare is Israel fighting against Gaza today. Have you seen what’s going on there? They’ve started filling tunnels and the like with water and I think soon concrete will be delivered and they’ll start pouring concrete,” Matviychuk told Sputnik. Russia, on the other hand, “is trying to preserve infrastructure, preserve the people of Ukraine, believing that they are simply deceived, led in the wrong direction by their leadership. Believe me, we will restore Ukraine, we will take care of these people, pay their pensions, because they are our brotherly people, we lived with them for 300 years in the same home,” he said.
“Here are two approaches. One is the approach of Russia, which is trying to save, even in the course of war, the people fighting against it. The second is that of those who supposedly protect these people, but drive them to slaughter and destroy them,” Matviychuk said, referring to the strategy he said is being pursued by President Volodymyr Zelensky and his government.
“The situation is such that the Kvartal 95 pseudo-elite that came to power in Ukraine led by the comedian Zelensky has made a lot of mistakes and done a lot of crimes over the years. Today they understand that war is the means of existence of their so-called government. Zelensky understands that if the war ends, no one will need him. He will either be killed or imprisoned. There are no other options. One group or another may kill him for knowing too much…And if Russia catches him, he will be imprisoned for war crimes. That is, they are now doing everything possible to ensure that the war continues. That’s why they are sending people to the slaughter in an endless stream,” the retired colonel concluded.
Russian defensive lines in Donbass, Zaporozhye, and Kherson ground Kiev's summer counteroffensive to a halt, with Russia's defense minister estimating earlier this month that Ukraine's military has lost over 125,000 troops and 16,000 pieces of military equipment over the past six months. Ukraine's top general confirmed last month that there would be no "deep and beautiful breakthrough" in Kiev's counteroffensive, and that "NATO textbooks" did not help to prevent the conflict from turning into a "stalemate."