Putin says ‘stupidity’ causing high war casualties as Ukraine's troops 'walking in groups'

Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, July 23, launched a scathing attack on neighbouring Kyiv for the excessive loss of troops and mercenaries in the war zone, saying that Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's regime's "stupidity" is causing a high level of casualties. Putin, during a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in St. Petersburg on Sunday, said that not only the Ukrainian military but also the foreign mercenaries that are fighting on Kyiv's side are suffering a high level of casualties during the ongoing counteroffensive. Putin characterised the Ukrainian efforts to recapture the occupied Ukrainian territories as "a failure."

Since early June, Ukraine’s armed forces “have already lost more than 26,000 people,” Putin said. 

“As for the foreign mercenaries, they also suffer significant losses” during the counteroffensive, the Russian President added.

Ukraine's forces are 'walking in groups' on battlefield: Putin

Lukashenko, Putin's staunchest ally backed the Russian President's rhetoric, saying that it was the flawed tactics and military strategies that were to blame for the high war casualties. Ukraine's forces are “walking in groups" on the battlefield, said Putin, adding that it is “because of their stupidity" that there is a high death toll. 

Putin stressed that he hoped that “the public in the countries whose governments send people to the war zone” are aware of what's happening on the battlefield in Ukraine. “We will inform people so that they can evaluate the actions of their governments," he said, speaking alongside his Belarusian counterpart. 

#Putin characterised the Ukrainian efforts to recapture the occupied Ukrainian territories as "a failure."

In its war update, Russia’s Defense Ministry stated that an estimated 4,990 foreign fighters have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the "special military operation" in Ukraine in February 2022. A similar figure has also fled the country, it noted. “Russia’s armed forces will continue the targeted destruction of foreign mercenaries on the territory of Ukraine,” the Russian Defense Ministry warned, adding that Ukraine is using the foreign fighters as “cannon fodder for meat assaults" during the war. Russia does not view the mercenaries as the legitimate Ukrainian combatants or POWs and has vowed that “the best thing that awaits them if they are captured alive is a trial and maximum prison terms.”