The Kremlin reacted to the provision of modern tanks to Ukraine
The spokesman of the Russian president, Dmytro Peskov, reacted to the announcement of the provision of modern tanks to Ukraine.
“From the European capital, from Washington, there are constant statements that the deployment of various weapons systems, including tanks, in Ukraine does not mean the involvement of these countries or the alliance in the hostilities taking place in Ukraine. We categorically disagree with this. … everything that both the alliance and the capital (Washington) does is perceived as direct involvement in the conflict, we see that it is growing,” Russian media quoted Peskov as saying.
On January 25, the German government agreed to provide Ukraine Leopard 2 battle tanks for two battalions. As a first step, Germany provided 14 tanks from the warehouses of the Bundeswehr. Berlin also provides logistics and ammunition. In addition, Germany will issue appropriate permits to partners who wish to transfer tanks of this model to Ukraine from their own warehouses. A number of European countries have announced their intention to provide these tanks to Ukraine.
Also, President Joe Biden announced that the United States provide Ukraine with 31 M1 Abrams tanks. In his statement, he emphasized that it is about helping Ukraine to protect its territory, it is not an offensive threat to Russia. If Russian troops had returned to Russia, this war would have ended on the same day the US president voted.
Russia’s large-scale war against Ukraine
February 24, 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine on the ground and in the air along the entire length of the common border. The territory of Belarus was used for the invasion of Kyiv region with the intention of capturing the capital. In the south, the Russian army, in particular, occupied part of the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, and in the north – the regions of Sumy region and Chernihiv region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the full-scale invasion a “special operation.” its primary purpose was determined by “demilitarization and denazification”, subsequently – “defense of Donbas”. And in September and early October, Russia made an attempt to annex the partially occupied Zaporizhia, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions. Ukraine and the West have declared that these actions are illegal. UN General Assembly on October 12 approved the resolutionwhich condemns the Russian Federation’s attempt to annex the occupied territories of Ukraine.
The Russian authorities say that the army does not attack civilian objects. At the same time, Russian aviation, missile forces, navy and artillery shell Ukrainian cities every day. Residential buildings and objects of civil infrastructure throughout the territory of Ukraine are subject to destruction.
At the end of October, Ukraine estimated Russia’s losses in the war at over 70,000 dead soldiers. In September, Russia announced that it had lost less than 6,000 dead. In June, President Zelensky assessed the situation of losses of Ukraine and Russia as one to five.
Having not overcome the resistance of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the surviving Russian units withdrew from the territory of Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions at the beginning of April. And in September, as a result of a lightning counteroffensive, the Ukrainian army liberated almost the entire occupied part of Kharkiv Oblast.
After the liberation of Kyiv region from Russian troops, facts of mass murders, torture and rape of civilians, including children, were discovered in the cities of Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel and villages of the region. The Ukrainian authorities have declared that Russia is starting a genocide. Western countries participate in the confirmation facts mass murders. The Russian Federation rejects accusations of war crimes.
Later, the facts of torture and murder of Ukrainian citizens began to be revealed in almost all settlements that were under Russian occupation. also, in Chernihiv Oblast, Kharkiv Oblast, Kherson Oblast.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has confirmed 7,068 conflicts of death and 11,415 conflicts of injury of civilians in Ukraine as a result of a full-scale Russian invasion. They are like that date organizations from February 24 to January 22.