According to Putin, Ukrainian losses are ten times higher than on the Russian side.
(Photo: AP)
Moscow, Kyiv Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken of catastrophic losses for Ukraine in its counter-offensive. “By my calculations, Ukraine has lost 25 to 30 percent of foreign-supplied technology,” he said Tuesday at a meeting with Russian military correspondents.
In addition, the losses of the Ukrainians are ten times higher than on the Russian side. For the first time in a long time he spoke in detail to media representatives about the Ukraine war and its consequences. “The enemy has not been successful in one sector of the front,” Putin claimed. Kiev had previously reported the recapture of several settlements in the south of the country.
According to the Kremlin boss, half of the Ukrainian losses are dead and seriously injured, who could not be made operational again. He didn’t want to give numbers. Instead, Putin referred to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow. He became more specific in the case of battle tanks and armored personnel carriers. During its offensive, Ukraine lost over 160 tanks and more than 360 armored vehicles, he said. He put his own losses at 54 tanks, some of which could be repaired.
Putin does not consider new mobilization to be necessary
The information cannot be independently verified. The Russian Ministry of Defense had recently also spoken of high Ukrainian losses and reported that all attacks had been repelled. However, the information provided by the ministry has repeatedly turned out to be exaggerated and in some cases incorrect.
In addition, the Kremlin chief described the imposition of martial law in Russia as unnecessary. “To declare any special regime like martial law across the country makes no sense at all, there is no need for it today,” Putin said. The question arose because of the increasing shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine. According to Putin, the attacks from the Ukrainian side served as a diversion to force Russia to withdraw military forces there from the front. There are currently no Ukrainian soldiers there.
According to Putin, a new wave of mobilization is not necessary in Russia either. He justified this with the allegedly high number of volunteer army applicants. Since January, more than 150,000 Russians have signed contracts as contract soldiers in the military, the head of state said.
Once again, Putin blamed the Ukrainian side for the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in the south of the country. The Ukrainian military fired at the dam with Himar rockets. Russia had no interest in the destruction, after all, Russian-controlled areas were flooded.
He regrets that the dam failure prevented a Ukrainian offensive in the area. Such an offensive would have been good for Russia “because it would have been very bad for them to attack there,” Putin said. Ukraine and the West blame Russia for destroying the dam and flooding much of southern Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast.
Putin promises better protection after attacks on Russian territories
After the drone attacks against the capital Moscow and other major cities, Putin also promised better protection through air defense. It is not an easy but solvable task, he said. So far, air defense has been geared more towards missiles and aircraft and less towards the light, small flying objects, said Putin. The drone attacks had caused severe damage to buildings.
Russia itself attacks neighboring Ukraine almost daily with drones. From Kiev it was said behind closed doors that nobody in Moscow should be surprised if some drones wanted to go home again. Officially, however, Ukraine denies having anything to do with the attacks.
Putin also threatened the neighboring country with even more severe attacks if the shelling of Russian state and border areas did not stop. Russia could create a “sanitary zone” so far away that its territory would no longer be accessible from Ukraine. What exactly he meant by that, Putin did not say.
Zelensky calls for anti-aircraft defense and sanctions after rocket fire
Meanwhile, following the deadly Russian missile attack on his hometown of Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for stronger anti-aircraft defenses for Ukraine and tougher sanctions against Russia. “Together with our partners, we must create such conditions that Russian terrorism becomes impossible,” he said in his daily video address on Tuesday evening. Firstly, the purchase of even more air defense systems and fighter jets would be necessary, secondly, the sanctions against Russia would have to be enforced more consistently.
“If we take, for example, one of the rockets that hit Kryvyi Rih today, then about 50 components in it – mainly microelectronics – were made in other countries,” Zelensky said. Some of them are even produced in Ukraine’s partner countries, and yet Russia manages to get hold of the components. The companies that work with Moscow are known.
After the Russian missile attack on Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky called for stronger air defenses for Ukraine and tougher sanctions against Russia.
(Photo: dpa)
“If someone acts as an intermediary or works with Russia to allow terrorists to continue blowing up houses and killing people, then such actors – corporate or state – deserve an appropriate response from the world,” Zelensky said. In any case, it is cheaper to enforce the sanctions than to constantly deliver new missile defense systems.
This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:
What will be important on Wednesday
After his visit to Kiev, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, wants to visit the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which is occupied by Russian troops, to get an up-to-date picture of the situation after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam. The nuclear power plant is located on the reservoir and also draws its cooling water from the Dnipro.
More: You can find the latest developments in our news blog on the Ukraine war