war in Ukraine
Updated on 06/14/2023 05:30
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with Russian war correspondents covering the war in Ukraine at the Kremlin in Moscow. (Recording date: June 13, 2023)
© picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS/Gavriil Grigorov
The Ukrainian offensive is underway, but Kremlin chief Putin says everything is under control. The Russian President speaks about catastrophic losses in Kiev and denies further planned mobilization. What the current situation in the war looks like – and what will be important on Wednesday.
of Russia
“The enemy was not successful in one sector of the front,” Putin claimed. Kiev had previously reported the recapture of several settlements in the south of the country.
According to the Kremlin boss, half of the Ukrainian losses are dead and seriously injured, who could not be made operational again. He didn’t want to give numbers. Instead, Putin referred to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow. He became more specific in the case of battle tanks and armored personnel carriers. During its offensive, Ukraine lost over 160 tanks and more than 360 armored vehicles, he said. He put his own losses at 54 tanks, some of which could be repaired.
The information cannot be independently verified. The Russian Ministry of Defense had recently also spoken of high Ukrainian losses and reported that all attacks had been repelled. However, the information provided by the ministry has repeatedly turned out to be exaggerated and in some cases incorrect.
Putin does not consider new mobilization to be necessary
In addition, the Kremlin chief described the imposition of martial law in Russia as unnecessary. “Declaring some kind of special regime like martial law across the country makes no sense at all, there is no need for it today,” Putin said. The question arose because of the increasing shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine. According to Putin, the attacks from the Ukrainian side served as a diversion to force Russia to withdraw military forces there from the front. There are currently no Ukrainian soldiers there.
According to Putin, a new wave of mobilization is not necessary in Russia either. He justified this with the allegedly high number of volunteer army applicants. More than 150,000 Russians have signed contracts as contract soldiers in the military since January, the head of state said.
Once again, Putin blamed the Ukrainian side for the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in the south of the country. The Ukrainian military fired at the dam with Himar rockets. Russia had no interest in the destruction, after all, Russian-controlled areas were flooded. He regrets that the dam failure prevented a Ukrainian offensive in the area. Such an offensive would have been good for Russia “because it would have been very bad for them to attack there,” Putin said.
Ukraine and the West blame Russia for destroying the dam and flooding much of southern Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast.
After attacks on Russian territories: Putin promises better protection
After the drone attacks against the capital Moscow and other major cities, Putin also promised better protection through air defense. It is not an easy but solvable task, he said. So far, air defense has been geared more towards missiles and aircraft and less towards the light, small flying objects, said Putin. The drone attacks had caused severe damage to buildings.
Russia itself attacks neighboring Ukraine almost daily with drones. From Kiev it was said behind closed doors that nobody in Moscow should be surprised if some drones wanted to go home again. Officially, however, Ukraine denies having anything to do with the attacks.
Putin also threatened the neighboring country with even more severe attacks if the shelling of Russian state and border areas did not stop. Russia could create a “sanitary zone” so far away that its territory would no longer be accessible from Ukraine. What exactly he meant by that, Putin did not say.
Zelenskyj calls for anti-aircraft defense and sanctions after rocket fire
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for stronger anti-aircraft defenses for Ukraine and tougher sanctions against Russia after the deadly Russian missile attack on his hometown of Kryvyi Rih. “Together with our partners, we must create such conditions that Russian terrorism becomes impossible,” he said in his daily video address on Tuesday evening. Firstly, the purchase of even more air defense systems and fighter jets would be necessary, secondly, the sanctions against Russia would have to be enforced more consistently.
“If we take, for example, one of the rockets that hit Kryvyi Rih today, then about 50 components in it – mainly microelectronics – were made in other countries,” Zelenskyy said. Some of them are even produced in Ukraine’s partner countries, and yet Russia manages to get hold of the components. The companies that work with Moscow are known.
“If someone acts as an intermediary or works with Russia to allow terrorists to continue blowing up houses and killing people, then such actors – corporate or state – deserve an appropriate response from the world,” Zelenskyy said. In any case, it is cheaper to enforce the sanctions than to constantly deliver new missile defense systems.
What will be important on Wednesday:
After his visit to Kiev, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, wants to visit the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which is occupied by Russian troops, to get an up-to-date picture of the situation after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam. The nuclear power plant is located on the reservoir and also draws its cooling water from the Dnipro.
Meanwhile, the progress of the Ukrainian offensive to recapture occupied areas in the south of the country is being closely followed both in Kiev and in Moscow. (dpa/tas)