“If the United States supplies Ukraine with cluster bombs, the Russian armed forces will be forced to use similar weapons against the Ukrainian armed forces,” Shoigu said in remarks broadcast on Russian television.
Shoigu recalled that neither Russia nor the United States nor Ukraine has signed up to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (adopted in Oslo in 2008), but he assured that Moscow was “aware of the threat posed by these munitions to the civilian population, abstained from voting and refrained from using it” during the military campaign on Ukrainian territory.
But, he continued, Moscow has enough cluster bombs in reserve that are “much more effective” and more diverse than American counterparts.
In his statements, Shoigu also said that since 2022, Russia’s military-industrial network has multiplied the production of various weapons and other equipment for its armed forces.
In that regard, he insisted that sending cluster bombs to Kiev would only “prolong” the conflict in Ukraine.
On this particular issue, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine “has run out of ammunition” and that it should “do everything possible to supply it”, despite the delivery of the controversial fragmentation bombs being a individual decision. for each country.
At the same time, Russia’s defense minister said that Ukraine has already lost more than 26,000 soldiers and 3,000 tanks since the counter-offensive in early June, and none of the targets proposed by Kiev have been achieved.
“Since June 4, more than 26,000 soldiers and 3,000 different tanks have fallen to the enemy,” the minister told Russian media, quoted by the Interfax news agency.
During this period, according to Shoigu, Russia destroyed 21 aircraft, five helicopters, 1,244 tanks and other types of armored vehicles, “including 17 German Leopard tanks, five French wheeled AMX tanks and 12 North American Bradley armored vehicles”.
The Russian minister also noted that 914 units of special warfare equipment, two anti-aircraft systems, 25 multiple rocket launchers, as well as 403 pieces of artillery and mortars from various sources were destroyed.
The holder of the Defense portfolio stated that during this period 176 HIMARS missiles, 27 Storm Shadow cruise missiles and 483 ‘drones’ (unmanned aerial vehicles) were shot down by the Russian air defenses.
“In general, the enemy has not achieved its objectives in any sector of the front,” he said.
On the contrary, and with regard to the maneuvers of the Russian troops, Serguei Shoigu stated that in Lyman, in eastern Ukraine, the assault groups of two motorized brigades of the Center Group not only carried out the Ukrainian offensive near the city of Karmazinivka, but also to the offensive and advanced to a depth of one and a half kilometers in a sector of the front two kilometers wide.
Shoigu stressed that Russian forces continue to effectively attack the Ukrainian army and Western-supplied weapons with high-accuracy long-range weapons, “significantly reducing the enemy’s offensive potential.”
“I would like to specifically point out that despite his intense work schedule, the Commander-in-Chief [o Presidente russo Vladimir Putin] listens twice a day to detailed reports from the Russian military command,” he concluded.
Source: DN
