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Ruetir – Nov 21, 2023

Ukraine has lost more than 13,700 troops and around 1,800 tanks and other heavy weaponry so far this month. This claim was made by the Minister of Defense Russia Sergey Shoigu at a ministerial meeting.

“Russian forces are actively thwarting Kiev’s attempts to penetrate their defense lines and continue to reduce Ukraine’s military capacity,” said the senior Russian defense official as quoted by RT, Tuesday (21/11/2023).

He claimed that Ukrainian soldiers surrendered in droves after realizing the futility of their counteroffensive.

The Russian minister issued his final assessment of Ukrainian casualties in late October, when he said the toll had surpassed 90,000 since the start of Kiev’s counteroffensive in early July.

In this week’s meeting, Shoigu described the costs of the Ukrainian army in the conflict as enormous.

Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top general, previously said the conflict with Russia had reached a “deadlock” and his armed forces were unlikely to achieve a breakthrough in the confrontation any time soon.

But President Volodymyr Zelensky disputed that assessment, claiming that progress was still being made in his country’s efforts to return Ukrainian territory to its pre-2014 borders.

On Monday, United States (US) Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Kiev to meet Zelensky and announce Washington’s latest military aid package, worth around USD 100 million. But the Pentagon has warned that it is running out of funds authorized by Congress to spend in Ukraine.

The funding has been contentious on Capitol Hill; The conservative wing of the Republican party opposes further aid. Critics of the White House’s pledge to support Kiev “as long as necessary” complain of a lack of transparency and argue that the US has more important priorities.

 

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