STORY: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin claimed Ukraine’s counter offensive has so far failed, saying, without providing evidence, that Ukrainian forces had suffered ‘catastrophic’ casualties.
Russian State TV broadcast Putin speaking to war reporters and military bloggers on Tuesday at the Kremlin…in some of his widest-ranging remarks since the invasion of Ukraine.
During several hours of questioning… he was shown claiming Ukraine had lost 25 to 30% of military vehicles supplied by Western countries, and that its human losses were 10 times higher than Russia’s.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify his assertions.
Putin did acknowledge that Russia needed to strengthen its defenses against attacks on its own territory…and warned he may need to impose a so-called ‘sanitary zone’ inside Ukraine to prevent such attacks.
“And if this continues, then we will have to consider the possibility – I say this very carefully – of creating some kind of buffer zone on Ukrainian territory to the kind of distance from which it would be impossible to reach our territory.”
When Putin ordered Russian forces into Ukraine in February last year, one of their first acts was to try to capture the capital Kyiv which they failed to do.
Putin did not rule out a second attempt to take Kyiv, saying it was only him who could answer the question.
He did add, however, that there was no need for a further mobilization of men to fight – for now.
Russian forces are currently battling Ukrainian soldiers along a 600-mile frontline, well away from the capital.
Ukraine says it will never rest until every Russian soldier is ejected from its land.
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