HENICHESK, December 14. /TASS/. Tensions remain in the area of the village of Krynki on the Dnieper's left bank, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine are trapped there and being successfully destroyed, Kherson Region Governor Vladimir Saldo told reporters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed bewilderment at the combined Direct Line Q&A session and year-end press conference on Thursday as to why the Ukrainian Armed Forces were "shoving people to extermination" to a "bridgehead" in Krynki on the left bank of the Dnieper. He said that about 80 Ukrainian servicemen were in Krynki for political purposes; the Kiev command is throwing the elites in there. The Ukrainian Armed Forces, caught in the meat grinder, lost dozens of people, while the Russian Armed Forces only had a few wounded. According to Putin, this may be due to the fact that Ukraine's leadership is "traveling and begging" for money from the West to prop the country up, to get more equipment and ammunition, and while they are doing this, they need to show that they have some staying power in the so-called counteroffensive.

"Tension in the area of the village of Krynki on the left bank of the Dnieper remains. However, the enemy is blocked there and successfully destroyed by our military. The enemy has no forces or opportunities to get out of the encirclement. The Kiev regime's militants are running out of gas - this is beginning to reach even their inhuman commanders," Saldo said.

He noted that "the intensity of shelling of civilian infrastructure on the left bank is not weakening." "The Kiev regime uses all kinds of weapons - artillery, mortars, MLRS, drones. It's not worth digging into the technicalities here, it's not that important. The main and most outrageous thing is that the deliberate terrorization of civilians continues," Saldo added.