2023-06-16 16:45:53
The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, assured today that Ukraine “has no chance” of advancing on “any front” in the counteroffensive that he launched almost two weeks ago in the south and east of the country, although he admitted that in some areas the troops Kiev have reached the first line of defense.
“Regarding this counteroffensive, in some areas Ukrainian troops reach the first line of defenses.a,” he said during the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
He pointed out that the Ukrainians are using their strategic reserves, first to break through the defense line, then to advance, and then to try to gain a foothold on a certain front.
“But they have never achieved any results and their losses are very high. It is even more than 1 to 10 compared to the losses of the Russian Army.”Putin said.
“Regarding (war) vehicles and equipment, we see that they are losing more and more. There are 186 lost tanks and 418 armored vehicles,” he said.
“Then we see that there are no hits in any of the areas, as we know from the Ministry of Defense reports,” he added.
He explained that at the moment near the Vremivka salient, in the Donesk region close to the administrative border of Zaporizhia, “there is an assault and the enemy is trying to attack with several detachments and five tanks.”
Also in the direction of the Zaporizhia region there are offensives with two tanks and several armored vehicles, he said.
“It is being fought now. And I think that the Ukrainian Army has no chance here. This is true in all other areas and directions in which they are moving,” Putin stressed.
The Russian president further argued that Ukraine will not hold out “for long” because everything Ukraine uses in its counter-offensive is of foreign origin.
“Well, you won’t last long like this. And our defense industry has been expanding every day. (Production) has increased 2.7 times this year and for more demanded products it has multiplied by 10,” he said.
“All plants have three shifts and work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have these reserves and they are quite strong,” Putin stressed.
The president reaffirmed that Russia “was forced to resort to the Armed Forces” on February 24, 2022 when it began the military campaign in Ukraine after recognizing the independence of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
“We see Western countries taking all these drastic measures to defeat Russia in this special military operation. We have set certain goals and we would like to demilitarize and denazify these areas,” he reiterated.
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