Putin admits loss of tanks as Kyiv steps up offensive

Moscow needs to strengthen borders after attacks on its territory, Russian leader tells correspondents, bloggers.

A Ukrainian service member near the newly liberated village of Neskuchne in the Donetsk region on Tuesday. Picture: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had been able to fight off Ukraine’s counteroffensive so far, but acknowledged losing a ­significant number of tanks and missing key equipment, such as drones, as fighting in southern and eastern Ukraine heats up.

In a meeting overnight on Tuesday with war correspondents and bloggers, Mr Putin said there was no need to declare martial law or a new mobilisation in Russia, despite what he called a “large-scale” offensive by Kyiv.

Mr Putin also said Russia needed to do more to root out enemy agents and secure its own domestic defences after a series of ­attacks in Russian border areas.

“In general, it makes no sense to introduce a special regime or martial law in the country, there is no such need today,” he said.

“It is necessary to work more thoroughly on some issues.”

Last October, Russia mobilised about 300,000 reservists to bolster its fighting force, and some nationalist politicians had demanded a further mobilisation to strengthen Russian lines. But Mr Putin said that since January, Russia had ­recruited about 156,000 contract servicemen and volunteers, forestalling the need for further recruitment.

Ukraine’s counter offensive, which began last week, had been widely anticipated. Kyiv initiated the operation to take back much of the territory Russia controls, nearly 20 per cent of Ukraine. The early stages of the offensive have yielded mixed results for the Ukrainian commanders, who so far have committed a small share of their Western-supplied and Western-trained units to the ­assaults.

While Kyiv has reported a string of victories, it has lost some critical equipment in heavy fighting in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions in the south and east.

“The battles are fierce, but we are moving forward,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Monday. Muddy ground after recent rain was among the difficulties ­facing troops, he said.

Mr Putin said Russia had lost 54 tanks during the Ukrainian ­offensive, though he said some of those could be repaired.

The figure amounts to a larger loss than that assumed so far by independent military observers. Oryx, an independent team of ­analysts tracking both sides’ losses in the war, said on Tuesday that it had counted fewer than 10 ­Russian tanks destroyed or damaged during the latest Ukrainian operation.

Mr Putin also said Ukraine had lost 160 tanks – a figure that seems inflated, according to independent observers. Oryx said on Tuesday that it had counted fewer than 10 Ukrainian tank losses.

Mr Putin also said Russia was lacking adequate supplies of drones and high-precision munitions, while acknowledging a growing need to strengthen its border defences and combat enemy agents after a string of ­attacks on its territory.

A series of drone strikes have been launched in recent weeks on refineries and airfields – even the Kremlin itself – bringing the war to the heart of Russia. Groups of Russians fighting for Ukraine also have made repeated forays into the border region of Belgorod.

“As for the border territories, there is a problem, it is connected mainly with (Ukraine’s) desire to divert our forces and means to this side,” Mr Putin said.

“We don’t need to do that, but of course we need to keep our citizens safe.”

Mr Putin said Russia should have been better prepared for such attacks inside its territory. “We need to improve the work of the special services,” he said.

Russia would continue with its long-term military objective to cement control of eastern and southern Ukraine and expand the area it occupied.

But he acknowledged that the next phase of the campaign would depend on the outcome of Kyiv’s counter-offensive.

The Wall Street Journal