On January 23, a senior US military official revealed that Russia has sent tens of thousands of troops to strengthen the front line in Ukraine in the past few months. Even so, the official added that Moscow’s additional military force made little difference, largely due to “lack of equipment and lack of training”.
Russian soldiers in the Russian city of Omsk on January 6. Photo: Archyde.com.
The number of new troops began to arrive in Ukraine after Russia announced it was mobilizing an additional 300,000 troops in October 2022, the official noted.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, was quoted by CNN as saying that Russia suffered more than 100,000 casualties in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army Valery Gerasimov said that Russia is confronting almost the entire West. against Moscow’s military activity in Ukraine.
“Modern Russia has never seen such a scale and intensity of hostilities,” Gerasimov, who was appointed earlier this month to lead Moscow’s joint forces in Ukraine, told the Argumenty I Fakty newspaper on Monday. /first.
“Our country and armed forces are being opposed by almost the entire Western collective,” the general added, referring to the military support the US and other NATO member states provide. granted to Kiev during the conflict.
Russia has long asserted that the conflict in Ukraine is actually a “proxy war” waged by the West against the country. Earlier this month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the involvement of the US and its allies in the conflict was “obvious”.
Secretary of the Russian National Security Council Nikolay Patrushev also said that “events in Ukraine are not a confrontation between Moscow and Kiev”, but a confrontation between NATO (mainly the US and UK) and Russia.
Both Washington and Brussels insist they have no intention of being directly involved in the conflict, but NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated in October 2022 that “if Russian President Vladimir Putin wins, it’s not just a victory.” a great defeat for Ukraine, but a failure for all of us.”
According to Gerasimov, besides the operation in Ukraine, the General Staff of Russia is still focused on ensuring the military security of the country against other existential threats. One of them is “NATO’s desire to expand through the admission of Finland and Sweden,” he said.