Ukraine has suffered heavy losses during three months of its summer counteroffensive against Russia but has failed to achieve its goals at any part of the front line, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has reported.
Kiev’s forces have lost more than 66,000 troops and over 7,600 heavy weapons since launching their push in early June, the Russian official estimated on Tuesday.
Despite the “colossal” cost in manpower and equipment, the Ukrainian government continues its operation because it desperately needs to show some kind of success to its Western sponsors, Shoigu also claimed.
The most tense situation remains in Zaporozhye Region, where Kiev deployed brigades from its strategic reserves that had been trained with the help of Western instructors, the minister said.
He provided details about Russian military units involved in repelling Ukrainian attacks in various directions before describing Kiev’s counteroffensive as a failure. In an attempt to obfuscate this reality, “Ukrainian militants are attacking civilian objects and tout those terrorist attacks as military victories,” Shoigu alleged.
The defense minister was speaking at a government meeting with Russian military leaders.
The minister’s last update of this type was in late July and put Ukrainian losses at some 20,800 troops and 2,200 pieces of weaponry.
Kiev does not disclose statistics about its military losses but Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that their counteroffensive was proceeding poorer than had been hoped, and is being waged at a serious cost to the army.