Ukraine Lost Over 66,000 Military, 7,600 Weapons Since Start of Counteroffensive: Shoigu
11:03 05.09.2023 (Updated: 11:15 05.09.2023)
© AP Photo / LIBKOS
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Ukrainian armed forces have failed to achieve any of their goals in three months of counteroffensive, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday.
Ukrainian troops have lost more than 66,000 military and 7,600 weapons since the beginning of the counteroffensive, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has stated.
"Since the beginning of the so-called offensive, enemy losses have exceeded 66,000 people and 7,600 weapons," Shoigu told at a meeting with senior defense officials.
Additionally, Russian air defense systems have shot down 159 HIMARS rockets, over 1,000 unmanned aerial vehicles and 13 cruise missiles over the past month, the minister said.
"The Russian armed forces continue to destroy the military infrastructure of Ukraine with precision strikes. Over the past month alone, 34 command posts of the Ukrainian armed forces ... were hit," Shoigu added.
The Russian Defense Minister has also argued that the Ukrainian armed forces have failed to achieve any of their goals in three months of counteroffensive.
"The Kiev regime, despite their huge losses, has been trying to conduct the so-called counter-offensive for the third month already. The armed forces of Ukraine did not achieve their goals in any of the directions," the minister told senior defense officials, adding that the Russian troops are active "along the entire line of contact."
Shoigu added that Kiev is "desperately trying to demonstrate" at least some military success to the West to keep receiving their military and economic support.
"In attempt to hide the failure of the offensive, Ukrainian militants attack civilian targets and pass them off as military victories," the minister said.
Apart from that, Shoigu has revealed that the Russian military will receive four new Tu-160M strategic bombers and six modernized Il-76 military transport aircraft this year.
Failed counteroffensive
On Monday, Russia President Vladimir Putin described Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the special military operation zone as a "failure," while expressing the hope that Kiev’s future attacks will be unsuccessful as well.
"In terms of the setback of the counteroffensive, this is not a setback, it is a failure. In any case, today it looks like that. Let's see what will happen next, I hope that it will continue like this," Putin said after his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sochi on September 4.
Ukraine launched a counteroffensive against Russian forces in early June after multiple postponements.
Citing the counteroffensive's needs, Kiev pushed its Western donors to step up its military and financial aid.
According to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, Kiev received about $100 billion worth of military aid from the Western allies since the start of Russian special military operation in February 2022.
