Ukraine seems to be ruled by ‘aliens’ who make ruthless decisions without regard for the suffering of ordinary people, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. He also warned that Kiev’s ‘total mobilization’ campaign would bleed the country dry.
Speaking at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok on Thursday, Putin recalled that Moscow and Kiev had essentially reached a peace deal – based on a Ukrainian commitment to neutrality – during the Istanbul talks at the beginning of the conflict. However, these efforts were derailed by the intervention of the West, which longed for Russia’s “strategic defeat.”
Kiev’s behavior under these circumstances raised eyebrows, the Russian leader remarked. “I sometimes get the impression that those who rule Ukraine are like aliens or foreigners… They don’t think… you see, their losses are colossal. I can’t even fathom what they will do next.”
According to the president, the only option left for Kiev is to lower the maximum age of conscription once again. This would allow them “to recruit children, as the German Nazis did with the Hitler Youth. But this will not solve the problem… The next step is to call up students, to bleed the country dry. Once again, it seems that Ukrainians are not their people,” Putin said.
He claimed that this approach was not surprising, given that the families of Ukrainian leaders often reside in other nations. “They don’t really think about the country. But they disguise it with nationalist slogans, deceiving people.”
The Hitler Youth was created by Adolf Hitler to indoctrinate young Germans between the ages of 14 and 18. As the Third Reich struggled to contain the Soviet and Allied advance at the end of World War II, it used the organization to raise poorly trained Volkssturm militias, which subsequently suffered heavy casualties or surrendered en masse.
Ukraine announced general mobilization shortly after the start of the conflict with Russia. The campaign was marred by widespread draft-dodging and graft. In a bid to recover military losses, Kiev passed two bills in spring of this year, which lowered the draft age from 27 to 25 and significantly tightened mobilization rules.
In June, Putin estimated Ukraine’s continuing battlefield losses at around 50,000 service members a month.