MOSCOW, December 14./TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed bewilderment at why the Ukrainian armed forces are being sent to their certain death at the "foothold" in Krynki on the left bank of the Dnieper.

"I don't even know why they are doing this. They are thrusting their people into plain extermination. The servicemen themselves say, Ukrainian servicemen say that this is a one-way ticket. After all, in order to send personnel there, there were 80 people there all the time, now even fewer, they use only boats which are the target for artillery fire, drones and other means of destruction," the president said in reply to a question from war correspondent Nikolay Dolgachev about this section of the front.

"Our servicemen have medical casualties there - two, three; three days ago there were six wounded, while the enemy has dozens of those killed. They were trapped in the death zone, and it is only for political reasons that personnel are being thrown into there."

"I would like to draw your attention - these are not just servicemen of the Ukrainian armed forces. These are the very best, the assault squads. There are actually not that many of them. If you count the losses of the Ukrainian army in a month-and-a-half, you can imagine how sensitive it is. I think this is stupid and irresponsible on the part of the country's political leadership," Putin stressed.

He said that the likely reason behind this is that while Ukraine's leadership is "traveling and begging" for money from the West to prop the country up, to get military hardware and ammunition, they need to show that they have at least some ability of achieving success in the so-called counter-offensive.