Russians have already ‘lost’ the war in Ukraine, says UK expert
Russia has already “strategically lost” its war with Ukraine, suffering heavy losses and strengthening NATO, the UK’S chief of defence staff has said.
“This is a dreadful mistake by Russia. Russia will never take control of Ukraine,” said Admiral Tony Radakin, the UK’S top military officer, adding it would emerge a “more diminished power”. “Russia has strategically lost already. NATO is stronger, Finland and Sweden are looking to join,” he said.
Admiral Radakin said Russian
President Vladimir Putin may achieve “tactical successes” in the weeks to come, but had sacrificed a quarter of his country’s army power for “tiny” gains and was running out of troops and high-tech missiles.
“The Russian machine is grinding away, and it’s gaining a couple of – two, three, five kilometres every day,” he said. “And Russia has vulnerabilities because it’s running out of people, it’s running out of hightech missiles. President Putin has used about 25 per cent of his army’s power to gain a tiny amount of territory and 50,000 people either dead or injured. Russia is failing.”
The Kremlin meanwhile warned against new Western weapons supplies to Ukraine as French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi all visited Kyiv together in a striking show of unified support.
“I would like to hope that the leaders of these three states and the President of Romania will not only focus on supporting Ukraine by further pumping Ukraine with weapons,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He said it would be “absolutely useless and will cause further damage to the country”.
It came as the European Union’s most powerful leaders embraced Ukraine’s bid to be accepted as a candidate for EU membership.
Mr Macron, Mr Scholz and Mr Draghi arrived in the Ukrainian capital by train and headed straight to the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, scene of some fierce battles early in the brutal war.