ST. PETERSBURG, June 5. /TASS/. Russian troops continue to advance on a daily basis, with the Russian army having recently taken control of approximately 2,440 square kilometers within the special military operation zone, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday during a meeting organized by TASS with the heads of leading international news agencies.
There have been no combat deployments of Oreshnik missiles, in the true sense of the word, in Ukraine, the president added.
TASS has compiled the president’s key statements on the Ukrainian conflict.
Russian Armed Forces’ control of territories
Russian troops are “advancing along the entire line of contact: there is no place where Russian troops have not advanced.”
The Russian army has already gained control of 2,440 square kilometers in the special military operation zone, with the advance continuing daily. “The Russian Federation has taken complete control of the Lugansk People’s Republic, 100%. And has taken over 85% of the Donetsk People’s Republic under its control.”
Russia controls “80% of the Zaporozhye Region territory.”
Problems of Ukrainian armed forces
The Ukrainian armed forces are catastrophically short of personnel: “The most pressing problem facing the Ukrainian military today is a severe shortage of personnel.”
“Recently, the Ukrainian armed forces have lost 100,000 servicemen. Monthly losses amount to about 40,000.”
Forced mobilization in Ukraine produces 15-16,000 people per month, “and people there, as you know, are being caught off the streets like stray dogs and forced into the army.” Around 20,000 service members desert from the Ukrainian armed forces every month, making this the most significant problem in the Ukrainian army: “Every month [the Ukrainian Armed Forces] lose approximately 10,000 men, and every month there are approximately 20,000 deserters. At the beginning of this year, the number of deserters was approximately 60,000. People are being forcibly taken away; there is no motivation [to fight], no one wants to fight. The almost official figure is 200,000 criminal cases opened for desertion. This is one of the problems [in the Ukrainian army], but the most significant one.”
The West provides Ukraine with a large number of drones, some of which, unfortunately, “break through” into Russian territory.
Kiev has the Patriot air defense systems, which are also in acute shortage, but “the system as such does not exist.” Russia possesses strike systems, including hypersonic missiles, that Ukraine lacks: “Ukraine does not possess the strike systems that Russia has. I am referring to hypersonic missiles and cruise missiles, which can be launched from the sea, air, or land.”
Oreshnik and other weapons
Unlike Ukraine, Russia has patriotism and the will of the people, which is the primary condition for achieving all the goals of the special military operation: “And there’s something else that’s even more important. There’s the patriotism and will of the Russian people.”
Russia possesses an air defense system, while Ukraine possesses only individual elements: “Russia has an air defense system. Yes, we must improve it, yes, we must strengthen it, and we will do so. But Ukraine doesn’t have such a system at all; it just has individual elements, but it doesn’t have a system.”
Russia possesses its own production, scientific, and personnel base to support its army, and this “is strengthening with each passing month.” Russia has new strike systems, and this also applies to the Oreshnik.
There have been no combat deployments of the Oreshnik in the true sense of the word against Ukraine: “We have virtually never had a single combat deployment of the Oreshnik in the true sense of the word against Ukrainian territory.”
In the most recent Oreshnik strike against Ukraine, they targeted areas where it was convenient to observe the results: “I will tell you a big military state secret. We simply struck where it was convenient to see the results.”
Russia struck a “shed” in Ukraine with an Oreshnik missile to observe how “the independently targetable warheads spread”: “We calculated everything down to the millimeter. This is important for us in order to make future decisions on the full-scale use of the Oreshnik missile against designated targets, including in urban areas.”
