Ukraine’s counteroffensive is ‘suicidal’ – Moscow

Thousands of Ukrainian troops are being sent to their deaths in a “suicidal” counteroffensive that Kiev is using to help keep Western benefactors on board with their massive aid programs, Russia’s top diplomat at the United Nations has claimed.

“Kiev is sending soldiers to be slaughtered only in order to successfully report to Western partners how Ukraine can defeat Russia,” Vassily Nebenzya, Moscow’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said on Friday in a UN Security Council meeting. He added that the counteroffensive is so futile that it’s known as the “Zaporozhye meat grinder” in Ukrainian society.

The campaign, which began earlier this month, has already cost Ukrainian forces tens of thousands of casualties and hundreds of Western-supplied armored vehicles, according to Russia’s UN mission. Western media outlets have suggested that the appetite of Western governments to send more aid to Kiev will depend at least partly on the outcome of the long-delayed counteroffensive.

Even if Ukraine’s backers continue to supply weaponry to facilitate their proxy war against Russia, Kiev doesn’t have an endless supply of troops to send into battle, Russian President Vladimir President said on Thursday. “It seems Ukraine’s Western allies are indeed prepared to wage the war to the last Ukrainian,” he added. 

READ MORE: Putin outlines Ukrainian military constraints

Nebenzya’s top deputy at the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, warned on Friday that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s regime could stage a false-flag attack on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant to trigger a direct NATO intervention in the conflict.

“The whole of Europe may be easily sacrificed by Ze and his blind Russophobic sponsors,” Polyansky said on Twitter. “Don’t say we didn’t warn you.”

Nebenzya called on Western governments to block Kiev from organizing such an operation.

The US joined with the UK, France, and Albania on Friday in issuing a joint statement demanding that the UN investigate Russia’s alleged use of Iranian drones in Ukraine. A 2015 resolution by the UN Security Council prohibits the transfer of such weapons from Iran.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied allegations of using Iranian drones. “We categorically reject it,” Nebenzya told reporters on Friday. “These are baseless allegations and blatant attempts to deliberately mislead the international community.”