SOCHI, June 9. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces are suffering enormous casualties as part of their counteroffensive, and this is a tragedy for which the Kiev authorities are fully to blame, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on Friday.
"We are witnessing considerable losses among the troops of Ukraine’s regime," he said. "It is known that in offensive operations the losses are 3 to 1. This is a classical ratio, but in this case, it is well above the classic parameters. I will not recount the figures now, but they are staggering."
Putin pointed out that this tragedy was taking place due to the events of previous years.
"And the responsibility for this tragedy lies entirely and fully with the current Kiev regime, whose primary source of power was the state coup in 2014," Putin said.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that since June 4, Ukrainian forces have been making failed counteroffensive attempts, suffering losses in manpower and hardware. On June 6, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that over the past three days, the Russian military had repelled all of Ukraine’s attempts to launch its "long-promised offensive." Ukraine lost up to 3,715 men, 259 tanks and armored combat vehicles, 134 trucks, 48 field artillery guns and more than 50 drones.
Bloomberg said that the West acknowledges the huge losses suffered by the Ukrainian army. Meanwhile, Politico wrote citing senior US officials that future support for Kiev hinges on the success of its counteroffensive.