Kiev has lost more than 125,000 troops and 16,000 items of arms and materiel since the beginning of the so-called counteroffensive June 4, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Friday, as TASS reports. 44% of Ukrainians now want negotiations, while the White House warns it is running out of money for Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “Russia has never refused peace talks with Ukraine.”
“An all-out mobilization in Ukraine, the deliveries of Western armaments and the commitment of strategic reserves to combat by the Ukrainian military command have not changed the situation on the battlefield. These desperate actions have only added to casualties among Ukrainian army units. Over six months of the so-called counteroffensive, the enemy has lost more than 125,000 personnel and 16,000 items of various armament,” Shoigu said in a conference call with military commanders.
Observers including Col. Douglas MacGregor and Robert F. Kennedy had claimed Ukraine had lost approx. 350,000 men before the start of the offensive. That would put Ukrainian losses in the war at 475,000 (killed, wounded, captured and missing).
The Ukraine Ministry of Defence claims that Russia has lost 333,840 men since its invasion began Feb. 24, 2022. Al Jazeera put Russian casualty figure at 50,000 in July. Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed Ukraine is losing 10 times as many men as Russia.
44% of Ukrainians want their government to seek a compromise solution with Russia at the negotiating table, Ukrainian news site Strana.ua reported, citing a Rating poll. 48% believe the fighting must continue until “the territories are liberated.”
Most of those who reject the negotiated solution are aged from 36 to 50, and 50% of them reside in the country’s west,
Sputnik News reported. 45% of those who support the negotiated solution belong to the 18-35 age group, and 51% of them live in Ukraine’s east.
The Russian Army has established a special radio frequency for Ukrainians wishing to surrender, as Gateway Pundit has reported. Now, 25 Ukrainian servicemen were shelled by their own comrades when they attempted to surrender, a Russian military officer who goes by the code name “Kupol” (“Dome”) told
Sputnik News, saying that Ukrainians killed their own soldiers with an artillery strike.
“They got in touch with us on frequency 149.200, and said they wanted to stay alive and see their families. We established contact and pinpointed them a location where they needed to go to surrender. Apparently, the Kiev regime found this to be detrimental, so they eradicated their own servicemen,” the officer told Sputnik News.
A Russian soldier told Sputnik that Ukraine eliminates their own sabotage teams if they are wounded or captured by the Russian army. Russian soldiers claim that these individuals are mercenaries from Poland, who use artillery shells to finish off wounded Ukrainian soldiers.
On
Nov. 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin said “we should think about how to stop this tragedy” of war in Ukraine.
Addressing a virtual meeting of the leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) called by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Putin said that “military actions are always a tragedy,” Reuters reported. “And of course, we should think about how to stop this tragedy,” Putin said. “Russia has never refused peace talks with Ukraine.”
The United States is running out of money for the Ukraine war, White House budget director Shalanda Young warned in a letter to Republican speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson and other congressional leader Monday.
“I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine and to provide equipment from US military stocks,” she said. “There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment. We are out of money – and nearly out of time.”
Young said cutting off funding would “kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield” and increase the likelihood of Russian victories,
Reuters reported.
White House Resident Joe Biden has asked Congress for
nearly $106 billion for his war in Ukraine, conflating it with the defense of Israel and U.S. border security. Republicans who control the House
rejected the package.
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