Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted on Tuesday that the situation is “extremely difficult” in the four regions of southern and eastern Ukraine that Moscow claims to annex, even without having fully conquered them.
“The situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, as well as in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions is extremely difficult,” Putin said.
The minister’s remarks appeared in a video intended for officials of the Security Service (FSB), Foreign Intelligence (SVR) and Protection of Senior Officers (FSO), who annually celebrate their “professional holiday” on December 20.
Vladimir Putin praised the work of members of the Russian security services operating in the “new regions of Russia”, assuring that “the people who live there, Russian citizens”, depend on the “protection” of these services.
The Kremlin chief, himself a former agent of the Soviet secret service (KGB), called for a “maximum concentration” of counterintelligence services.
“It is necessary to crack down on the actions of foreign secret services and effectively identify traitors, spies and saboteurs,” Vladimir Putin said.
In September, the Russian president announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions (Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson) partially controlled by the Russian army, after having held local “referendums” denounced as fictitious by kyiv and the West.
However, in November Ukraine retook Kherson, the capital of the region of the same name, a major setback for Moscow, after a weeks-long counteroffensive and actions by Ukrainian guerrillas behind enemy lines.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine caused at least 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million refugees to European countries, for which the United Nations classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe. since World War II (1939-1945). ).
Right now, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food aid and shelter.
The UN presented as confirmed since the beginning of the war 6,755 dead civilians and 10,607 wounded, stressing that these figures are far below the real ones.
Source: TSF
