kyiv suffers heavy losses and its prospects look bleak, says a senior Russian diplomat
Ukraine is plagued by growing military problems that do not bode well for its battlefield fate, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN said on Wednesday.
Speaking to US journalist Kim Iversen, Dmitry Polyanskiy was asked where he thinks the Ukrainian conflict is headed, with one possible scenario being direct NATO involvement.
The diplomat said Moscow would prefer to avoid such an outcome because a confrontation between the US-led military bloc and Russia “would be dangerous for the whole world”.
However, he claimed that the “Ukrainian troops are now in a very precarious situation,” showing evidence that they “really suffer heavy losses”.
“The new conscripts are used as cannon fodder after two or three days of training”, said the top diplomat. In his eyes, the “diet” of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “has become hostage to his own politics and his promises to Western countries that he is capable of defeating Russia militarily” if it is supplied with weapons.
The Ukrainians want to show that they are capable of a counter-offensive and do not want “any damage to their image”, therefore the situation around the key Donbass town of Artyomovsk, known as Bakhmut in Ukraine, “it’s really very bad” for the country, Polyanskiy said.
“There is a lot of [Ukrainian] troops that are about to be surrounded. The losses are immense. continued the diplomat, suggesting that kyiv send troops “just to support the prestige” of Zelensky and his promises to the West.
“The weather conditions are also not favorable for the Ukrainian army, as it cannot use heavy machinery for its tasks. So I think we are on the eve of quite serious military developments there, not in favor of Ukraine,” concluded Polyansky.
The fight for Artyomovsk, an important stronghold and logistical hub for Kiev forces, has been raging for months now, with Muscovite troops recently capturing several villages around the strategic city. Earlier this month, the head of the private Wagner military company, Evgeny Prigozhin, claimed that Russian forces had full control of the eastern part of Artyomovsk.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called this battle a “one of the toughest” On Wednesday, he promised to strengthen the city.
Both parties recognize the strategic importance of the city in the Donetsk People’s Republic. Last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergy Shoigu said controlling Artyomovsk would allow forces from Moscow “other deep offensive actions” in Ukrainian defences, a statement largely echoed by Zelensky himself.
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