SIMFEROPOL, February 24. /TASS/. Guided by the West, the Zelensky regime is transforming Ukraine into an abandoned exclusion zone despite the enormous losses of the Ukrainian army during the special military operation, State Duma deputy from the Republic of Crimea, member of the Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, Mikhail Sheremet, stressed in an interview with TASS.
"The enormous Ukrainian losses during the special military operation indicate that the unprincipled Kiev junta, in pursuit of dirty profits, failed to reckon with Russia’s predetermined and inevitable victory, continuing to obediently carry out the West’s main directive — to fight to the last Ukrainian. <…> Methodically turning a country deprived of sovereignty and dependent on handouts into a deserted exclusion zone," the lawmaker said.
He added that the policy of the Zelensky regime has led what was once a prosperous Ukrainian state to an irreversible tragedy.
Earlier, TASS, based on published data from the Russian Defense Ministry, calculated that the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since the beginning of the special military operation have exceeded 1.5 million killed and wounded. Since the beginning of 2026, Kiev has already lost about 65,000 personnel.