© Vadim Savitsky; Press Service of the RF Ministry of Defense; RIA NovostiRussian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu
Facing pressure from its Western backers to demonstrate tangible battleground results, Kiev continues to throw untrained soldiers into the meat grinder, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting of ministry officials on Tuesday.
"Despite the absence of any significant results of the so-called counteroffensive, Ukraine's Western handlers are not backing down from their inhuman principle of 'arms as a path to peace,'" Shoigu said at a regular briefing of senior military officials.
Kiev does not disclose statistics about its military losses, but according to Moscow's estimates, the number of Ukrainian servicemen killed since the counteroffensive began has now surpassed 83,000, with at least 17,000 killed in September alone.
"The United States and its allies continue to arm the Ukrainian armed forces, while the Kiev regime continues to throw untrained soldiers into senseless assaults and slaughter," the defense minister said, adding that these "cynical actions by the West and their henchmen in Kiev are only pushing Ukraine towards self-destruction."
Washington and its allies sent billions of dollars in direct military aid to Kiev since fighting with Russia escalated in February 2022, including dozens of shipments of heavy weapons, vehicles, and munitions. The latest deliveries have featured the first round of US Abrams main battle tanks, 31 of which were authorized for Ukraine early this year.
Russia has repeatedly warned the West that arms shipments to Ukraine will only prolong the conflict and inflict more civilian suffering, but will not change the outcome.
Evan as Ukraine's Western backers have become increasingly skeptical about the prospects for the operation, they continue to pour weapons into the country, "blinded" by the goal of inflicting a "strategic defeat" upon Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently told the UN General Assembly.
It's hard to disagree. The matter looks even more sad when you know it's happening again.
Unfortunately, over the last few hundred years, they have always sided with someone stronger, and the result has been slaughter.
Now they allied with the USA, once it was Han Turkish, another time it was Adolf Hitler in 1943.
Each time, someone promised them something, as long as they contributed with their sword... to the cause.
And it always ended the same. Ultimately, they were destroyed, both by dissatisfied allies and by the enemies they made in the form of thousands of victims.
Now they find themselves in a vicious circle of consequences for their own actions.