The Ukrainian authorities don’t treat their own soldiers as humans, Vladimir Putin has said
A destroyed Ukrainian tank in Donbass, August 20, 2023. © Sergey Averin / Sputnik
Ukraine is senselessly turning its own soldiers into cannon fodder for Russian troops, President Vladimir Putin has said, while reflecting on the methods employed by Kiev during its ongoing offensive.
“As you can see, the situation on the contact line is currently stable,” the Russian leader said, during the meeting with Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) acting head Leonid Pasechnik in the Kremlin on Wednesday.
Putin went on to comment on Kiev’s recent tactics, which have failed to yield any significant territorial gains, but cost heavy losses of Ukrainian troops and armor.
“They are throwing [Ukrainian soldiers] on our minefields, under our artillery fire, acting as if they are not their own citizens at all. It is astonishing,” Putin said.
Despite Kiev’s public optimism regarding its offensive operations, which were launched in early June, international media has reported that Western officials were growing concerned and frustrated over the lackluster results achieved by the Ukrainian military, as well as the loss of NATO-supplied equipment, including heavy tanks.
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Ukrainian armored units have been struggling to get past dense Russian minefields and had failed to break through fortified positions. The New York Times cited unnamed US and British officials on Tuesday as saying that the planners in Kiev had made the mistake of dispersing their attacking units across the long front line rather than focusing on a concentrated strike in a single area.
