2023-12-20 08:46:55
Foreign war in Ukraine
Putin sees the West as having failed against Russia
As of: 9:46 a.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes
“As the winter approaches, the Russians are increasingly attacking critical infrastructure again.”
The US government is making funds available for another military aid package for Ukraine this year. Russia correspondent Christoph Wanner summarizes the current developments in the Ukraine war.
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The West’s goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia in Ukraine has been shattered by the “growing power of our armed forces and arms production,” says President Vladimir Putin. “The myth of the invulnerability of Western military technology has collapsed.”
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin sees the West as having failed in its attempts to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia in Ukraine. The goal was shattered by the “growing power of our armed forces and arms production,” Putin said in Moscow on Tuesday at a Defense Ministry meeting in front of military officers and representatives from politics, church and society. In the war against Ukraine, “one can confidently say that the initiative lies with our armed forces,” the Russian president said.
Putin ordered the attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, after which many states sided with the attacked country and supplied it with weapons. The Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in the summer of 2023 to liberate its territories from Russian occupation fell short of the expectations of politicians and civil society. Foreign experts such as the Institute for War Studies (ISW) in the USA have recently observed that Russia is gaining ground with its advances.
Putin has recently repeatedly declared the counteroffensive by the Ukrainian armed forces to have failed. “The enemy is suffering heavy losses and has used up a significant amount of its reserves,” said the 71-year-old. “The myth of the invulnerability of Western military technology has also collapsed.” In a minute’s silence, Putin remembered the Russian soldiers killed in the fighting. He did not give any figures on the losses.
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Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at the meeting that Ukraine had now lost 383,000 soldiers to death or injury in the war. Ukraine, in turn, currently reports the number of losses in the Russian ranks at 348,000 soldiers. The information cannot be verified. Neither warring party has released official figures for its own losses.
Shoigu also said that the number of volunteers should increase by more than 250,000 to around 745,000 contract soldiers in the coming year. The Russians continue to be lured into military service with a comparatively high salary of around 2,000 euros per month. “The primary goal for the coming year is to continue the special military operation until all set tasks are completed,” said Minister Shoigu. According to previous information, the tasks include, above all, complete control over the previously partially occupied areas of Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporizhia – and demilitarization of Ukraine.
Putin once again accused the USA of pushing the conflict in Ukraine to the point of war. He claimed that the West had always only wanted to use the country as an instrument to destroy Russia. The USA has achieved “its goal” on the European continent of breaking up Russia and the EU. The Kremlin chief also criticized NATO’s growing activity near Russia’s borders – for example in Finland, which only became a member of the military alliance in the wake of Putin’s war.
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Putin also publicly stated that the war against Ukraine highlighted problems in Russia’s defense. Russia needs more drones, better air defense and a modern satellite communication system. At the same time, he praised the modernization of the nuclear power’s strategic weapons. For example, four Tu-160M long-range bombers and four nuclear submarines were put into operation. By the end of the year, 15 new launch complexes for the Yars and Avantgard intercontinental ballistic missiles should be ready for use.
Immediately before Putin’s appearance, Russian anti-aircraft defense shot down a Ukrainian drone in the Moscow region, according to the Defense Ministry. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no injuries or damage. According to the state news agency Ria Novosti, Vnukovo International Airport reported restrictions on take-offs and landings around midday in the wake of the drone attack.
There were also reports on social networks that air traffic was also restricted at the capital’s Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports. A little later, traffic returned to normal. Russian anti-aircraft defense had previously reported the downing of drones in the Bryansk and Kaluga regions.
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In Kiev, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invited people to an annual press conference in the late afternoon under the strictest security precautions. Zelensky was also expected to comment on the course of the war and the goals for 2024. He had already announced in advance that the country’s air defense would be strengthened. Ukrainian air defense officials said they shot down two Russian drones on Tuesday.
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