Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that western arms shipments would not help Kiev advance its counter-offensive launched in early June, ruling that it has yielded “no results” so far.
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“Today it is clear that the Western sponsors of the Kiev regime are clearly disappointed with the results of the so-called counter-offensive that the Ukrainian authorities have been loudly proclaiming in recent months,” Vladimir Putin said during a televised meeting of his Security Council.
“No results, at least for now. “The colossal resources ‘injected’ into the Kiev regime are not helping, nor are the shipments of Western arms, tanks, artillery and missiles,” he added.
“The whole world sees that the vaunted, supposedly invulnerable Western equipment is on fire and tactically and even technically inferior to some Soviet weapons,” said the Russian president.
The Ukrainian army’s counteroffensive, launched in early June, encountered Russian troops entrenched behind solid defensive lines. According to the leadership in Kiev, progress is slower than expected, around 200 square kilometers have been taken over.
Vladimir Putin appreciated that Russian forces fought “professionally” and “heroically”, assuring that Ukrainian troops suffered “huge casualties” and that “their mobilization capabilities were exhausted”.
Vladimir Putin has also launched a violent smear campaign against the Polish authorities when Warsaw recently increased the military presence on its borders with Belarus after fighters from the Wagner paramilitary group arrived in the country.
“Unleashing aggression against Belarus is tantamount to aggression against the Russian Federation. We will respond with any means at our disposal,” President Vladimir Putin warned.
He accused Warsaw of having “revanchist plans” and wanting to regain territories in western Ukraine, a repeated claim by Russian authorities.
Poland, a NATO member, has been one of Kiev’s strongest allies since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine and has taken in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees but never mentioned the possibility of sending troops there.