Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Ukraine suffers “catastrophic losses in the counteroffensive” against Russian forces, but admits that the country suffers from depleted reserves of some military equipment.
His assessment came hours after Russia said it had captured Kiev’s armored vehicles from Western forces on the battlefield, and after deadly Russian missile attacks on the Ukrainian leader’s hometown.
“Ukrainian losses are approaching a level that can be described as catastrophic,” Putin said during a meeting in the Kremlin with Russian journalists and bloggers covering the conflict.
“In recent days, kyiv claimed to have recaptured several villages in the eastern Donetsk region after launching a long-awaited offensive backed by Western weapons and training,” it continued.
Putin admitted, however, during the meeting in the Kremlin, that the Russian forces were suffering from the depletion of reserves of some military equipment, targeting in particular drones and attack missiles: “High-precision munitions, communication equipment, drones , etc. we have, but unfortunately not enough.
The Russian leader also acknowledged that authorities could have better anticipated Ukraine’s recent cross-border attacks on Russia, which forced Moscow to station artillery and military aircraft on its own soil.
Putin spoke to the media hours after Russian missile attacks on Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown killed 11 people. Overnight, attacks hit several locations and destroyed a five-story apartment building in the central city of Kryvyi Rig, sending smoke billowing from the rubble-covered housing block.
“During this terrible night, the enemy killed 11 civilians in the city,” said Sergiy Lysak, the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor. Zelensky claimed after the attacks that Russian forces were conducting a campaign against “residential buildings, ordinary cities and people”.
“The terrorists will never be forgiven and will be held accountable for every missile they launch,” he said in a statement on social media.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched 14 Iranian-made cruise missiles and four drones overnight, with 10 missiles and one drone intercepted.
The wave of attacks came shortly before Moscow claimed to have captured several German Leopard tanks and American Bradley infantry fighting vehicles.
The Defense Ministry has released footage showing Russian troops examining equipment supplied to Ukraine by Western countries.
“Leopard tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. These are our trophies. Equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Zaporizhzhia region,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
kyiv has asked its allies in the West to provide a wide range of modern military equipment to help its forces retake large tracts of territory from Russia.
The Russian Defense Ministry said some of the captured vehicles had their engines running, suggesting the battles they were involved in were brief and Ukrainian troops had “fled” from their offensive positions.
The German defense minister said Berlin cannot immediately replace the tanks it has supplied to Ukraine.
The commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Colonel Oleksandr Syrskyi, said the troops were continuing “the defense operation in the Bakhmut sector”, the scene of the longest battles of the offensive.
Source: TSF
