Ukraine has lost more than 30,000 troops in just three months of fighting since its large-scale incursion into Russia's Kursk Region, President Vladimir Putin told the Valdai Forum on Thursday, noting that the Ukrainian people are paying a “terrible price” for Kiev’s decision to do Washington’s bidding.
Kiev launched an incursion into the region on August 6, deploying some of its best-equipped units. The force was contained by Russian troops and is steadily being pushed back, suffering immense losses, according to Moscow.
“Just look at what is happening now at the front line… They raided the Kursk Region. Well, their losses are colossal – in just three months of fighting, the Kiev regime suffered more casualties than in the whole of last year: over 30,000,” Putin said at the 21st annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi.
Putin asserted that the decision to invade Kursk made little military sense and was rather dictated by purely “political considerations” imposed on Kiev by its “overseas” sponsors.
“Why are they sitting there, bearing such losses? Because they were ordered – from overseas – to hold on at any cost, at least until the US elections, to show that all the efforts of the Democratic administration to support Ukraine were not in vain,” the Russian leader said.
“That’s the price. A terrible tragedy, I think, both for the Ukrainian people and for the Ukrainian army,” Putin stressed.
The Ukrainian incursion has come at a great cost to Kiev, not only in terms of manpower but also regarding dwindling stocks of Western-supplied weapons. The latest update from the Russian Ministry of Defense estimated Kiev's losses at 29,600 casualties, 184 tanks, 106 infantry fighting vehicles, more than 1,000 armored vehicles, and scores of other pieces of heavy weaponry, including 26 military engineering vehicles.
Ukrainian officials have claimed that the operation has slowed Russian advances along the eastern frontline. However, according to media estimates, Russian troops gained more ground in October than in any month this year.