Western weapons 'not helping' Ukrainians on front, says Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin said on Friday (July 21st) that Western arms deliveries did not help Ukraine to advance in its counter-offensive launched in early June. The Russian president judged that it had so far yielded "no results".

Vladimir Putin during a meeting of his Security Council, in the Kremlin, July 21, 2023. © Alexander Kazakov/AP

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Today, it is obvious that the Western sponsors of the Kiev regime are clearly disappointed with the results of the so-called counter-offensive that the Ukrainian authorities have loudly proclaimed in recent months. Vladimir Putin said during a meeting of his Security Council broadcast on television. "No results, at least for now. The colossal resources that have been 'injected' into the Kiev regime are not helping, and neither are deliveries of Western weapons, tanks, artillery and missiles," he added.

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Vladimir Putin: "Western supporters of Kiev regime are disappointed"

Anastasia Becchio

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The whole world sees that the vaunted and supposedly invulnerable Western equipment is burning, and tactically and technically inferior even to some Soviet-produced armaments. " said the Russian president. Launched at the beginning of June, the counter-offensive of the Ukrainian army comes up against Russian troops entrenched behind solid defensive lines. According to the leaders in Kiev, it is advancing at a slower pace than expected, with about 200 square kilometers having been retaken. Vladimir Putin considered that the Russian forces were fighting in a "professional" and "heroic" manner, assuring that the Ukrainian troops had suffered "enormous losses" and that "their mobilization capacity" was exhausted.

Diatribe against Polish authorities

Vladimir Putin has also launched into a violent diatribe against the Polish authorities, while Warsaw has recently increased the military presence on its borders with Belarus following the arrival in that country of fighters of the paramilitary group Wagner. He also accused Warsaw of having "revanchist plans" and wanting to recover territories in western Ukraine, a recurring claim by the Russian authorities.

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Polish leaders probably expect to form a coalition under the umbrella of NATO and intervene directly in the conflict in Ukraine in order to "appropriate" a larger piece, to regain, as they believe, their historical territories, i.e. today's western Ukraine. It is well known that they also dream of appropriating the lands of Belarus," the Russian president said.

And Vladimir Putin also warns: "As for the policy of the Ukrainian regime, it is his business. If they want, as traitors do, to give up something, to sell something, to pay something back to their masters, I repeat, that is, after all, their business. We will not get involved. But as far as Belarus is concerned, it is part of our Union, and the outbreak of aggression against Belarus will be tantamount to aggression against the Russian Federation. We will respond with all means at our disposal."

Poland, a NATO member, has been one of Kiev's strongest allies since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine and has taken in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees, but has never raised the possibility of sending troops there.

(With AFP

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• Ukraine
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• Vladimir Poutine