MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. Western countries are putting extraordinary pressure on the Kiev regime to compel it to continue the fight to "the last [Ukrainian] soldier," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

"As for the potential discord in the collective West and continued extraordinary pressure being placed on Kiev for them to continue the fight to the last [Ukrainian] soldier, this is obvious," the Kremlin official said, replying to a question as to whether Ukrainian failures during the counteroffensive could bring negotiations closer.

That said, Peskov chose not to discuss Ukrainian failures on the battlefield. "After all, it’s the professionals who should discuss [such martial] failures, that is, our military and representatives of other relevant agencies," he explained. Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a briefing with permanent members of the Security Council, at which he heard reports by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev on the situation in the special military operation zone and Ukrainian losses of both personnel and equipment.

After hearing the reports, the head of state remarked that the West can keep up its pipeline of supplies of additional military hardware to Ukraine, but the country’s mobilized reserves are finite. "It appears that Ukraine’s Western allies have indeed resolved to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian," Putin concluded.