Ukraine Commander Says Russia Shows No Sign of Winding Down War

Russia shows no signs it plans to wind down its war in Ukraine, with an estimated 695,000 troops deployed across an expanded front line and another 121,000 in strategic reserve, according to Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi. 

With Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor well into its fourth year, the Russian military is able to mobilize an average of about 9,000 new troops per month, he said. Bloomberg was unable to independently verify the figures. 

“They are preparing for a protracted war, a war of attrition. This is their main strategy. They want to pressure us with their human resources, exhaust us with their mass,” Syrskyi told reporters in Kyiv late Saturday. 

Syrskyi spoke a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine needed to recognize the “realities on the ground,” a reference to territory in eastern and southern Ukraine occupied by his forces. 

Ukraine and its Western partners have been trying to push Russia toward a ceasefire since March. While US President Donald Trump threatened earlier he could consider more sanctions if Moscow rejected a ceasefire, the US leader frustrated allies by dismissing pressure to impose tougher penalties at last week’s G-7 summit in Canada.

Ukraine will continue deep strikes inside Russian territory, expanding their depth and scale, Syrskyi said. Such attacks — often aimed at targets hundreds of kilometers from the front lines — are Kyiv’s most efficient way to inflict military damage on Russia, he added. 

Syrskyi floated the possibility of new counteroffensives but provided no concrete details. Merely defending doesn’t bring anything except slowly losing ground and manpower, he said. 

“Of course, we will not simply remain on the full defensive,” Syrskyi said

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday named Brigadier General Hennadii Shapovalov as the new commander of Ukraine’s ground forces as the nation prepares to combat Russia’s latest push. Addressing troop shortages is expected to be a priority. 

Syrskyi said that as of mid-June, the front lines in the nation’s east and southeast stretch about 1,200 kilometers , an increase of about 200km in the past year. In the last day alone, Ukraine’s ground troops repelled some 171 clashes.

Even as Kremlin forces look to establish a buffer zone within Ukrainian territory in the Sumy region, Kyiv’s troops are maintaining a foothold in Kursk, he said, following a cross-border offensive last summer. 

“Ukraine controls 90 square kilometers of the Glushkovskyi district” of Kursk oblast, Syrskyi said. “These are our preemptive actions in response to a possible Russian offensive.”

Syrskyi defended Ukraine’s operation in Kursk region, saying it allowed Kyiv’s troops to bind Russian forces there. Several Russian units rotated in April into Ukraine’s east and southeast, where Kremlin troops have been slowly gaining ground, were forced to redeploy to the Kursk and Sumy regions.

Separately, Ukraine’s forces have managed to stabilize Russia’s attempted advance in the Sumy region, where it has about 50,000 troops, including regaining control of a handful of settlements in recent days, Syrskyi said. 

Putin on Friday said Moscow’s offensive in the region was aimed at creating a “buffer zone” beyond the border of some 10 to 12 kilometers wide. Russia doesn’t have the objective of taking Sumy — including the city with a pre-war population of about 250,000 — “but we do not rule it out,” he said. 

“We have a saying, or parable — wherever the Russian soldier treads is ours.” 

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.