Nebenzya called Ukraine’s counteroffensive suicidal

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are waging a suicidal counter-offensive that has already cost them tens of thousands of mobilized and several hundred armored vehicles, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzia said at a meeting of the UN Security Council.

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine have been conducting a suicidal counteroffensive against Russian positions for almost a month now, it has already cost them tens of thousands of mobilized, several hundred armored vehicles and is called in Ukrainian society nothing more than a Zaporozhye meat grinder,” said Nebenzia (quote according to TASS).

Earlier today, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin declaredthat some Western elites think that Russia can be “crushed by force of arms”, but this is a deep misconception. He noted that the gravest consequences of this delusion “are being felt today by the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and mercenaries from Western countries, who are massively dying at the front for the interests of the ruling circles of Washington and a number of other capitals of NATO states that are absolutely alien to them.”

The day before, on June 22, at a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with permanent members of the Security Council, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu toldthat the Armed Forces of Ukraine, after carrying out active hostilities over the past 16 days, having suffered “significant losses”, reduced their activity. According to him, now the Ukrainian army is regrouping. As Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, said at the same meeting, the loss of personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since the start of the counteroffensive in June exceeded 13,000 people.

Formerly Putin declaredthat the active phase of the counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was replaced by a certain lull, due to serious losses on the Ukrainian side. “Apparently, the enemy is now combining new units from brigades that have suffered serious losses, is engaged in restoring combat capability,” the president said.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine have been conducting offensive operations since June 4. On June 9, Putin said that the counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had definitely begun, but the Ukrainian army was not able to achieve its goals in any sector. June 16 during the plenary session SPIEF Putin said that the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are 10 times higher than the Russian ones. On June 13, at a meeting with military officers, Putin said that starting from June 4, Kyiv could lose up to 30% of the equipment delivered from abroad in an attempt to launch a large-scale counteroffensive.