The four-month “counteroffensive” by Ukrainian forces has failed to reach any of its objectives, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, told the Security Council on Friday.
“For several days now, Russian troops have switched to combat operations, practically along the entire front line. Therefore, we can consider the so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive formally over,” Nebenzia said.
According to the Russian envoy, four months of Ukrainian attacks resulted only in “hundreds of units of destroyed Western equipment” and “tens of thousands of lives of those conscripted by the Kiev regime, most of whom did not want to fight.” Some of the lucky ones surrendered and stayed alive, Nebenzia added.
Ukraine’s casualties have amounted to “over 90,000 people,” 557 tanks and 1,900 armored vehicles, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed last week at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi.
Instead of putting an end to the “massacre” of Ukrainians on the frontline, the West “continues to feed them weapons, like a drug to an addict, thus prolonging his agony,” Nebenzia told the UN Security Council.
“Let me emphasize that Russia is opposed not by the armed forces of Ukraine, whose resources are almost exhausted, but by the collective military machine of the NATO countries and their combined defense industry,” the Russian envoy added.
“The cynicism of our former Western partners is simply amazing,” he said, bringing up the recent statement of Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren that arming Ukraine is “a very cheap way” to confront Russia.
A Ukraine that lives in peace with its neighbors and respects the rights of all of its citizens “had and still has a future,” the Russian envoy concluded. “The criminal neo-Nazi regime of [Vladimir] Zelensky does not.”
The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, admitted on Thursday that the offensive wasn’t just “behind schedule” but “off the schedule entirely,” adding that the explanation for that is classified.
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