Putin Claims He Does Not Want A Ukrainian City He Has Lost 1500 Troops Fighting For

Kate Nicholson

20 May 2024 at 10:20 am·2-min read

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he has no interest in Kharkiv – but has still lost more than 1,500 troops fighting for the Ukrainian region. Contributor via Getty Images

Vladimir Putin says he does not want to seize the Kharkiv region even as his losses in the ongoing offensive continue to rise.

As he left China last week, the Russian president said, “there are no such plans today,” for Moscow to seize Ukraine’s second-largest city – despite launching an offensive in Kharkiv last week.

Putin claimed that his Russian troops are just looking to establish a “security zone” around the border, to protect the Russian city of Belgorod which has been targeted by Ukraine’s armed forces.

Ukraine’s Kharkiv is about 30km from the border with Russia, and Belgorod around 40km on the other side.

Putin claimed Ukraine was “firing right on the city centre on the residential areas” in Belgorod, adding: “And I had said publicly if this continued, we would be forced to create a security zone – a sanitary zone. That is what we are doing.”

Ukraine has not responded to this suggestion, but it has previously said it is aiming at legitimate military targets in the area, like oil refineries.

But, despite these claims, Russian losses are mounting in the offensive.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 1,572 soldiers have been lost in the last week after thousands of Russian troops stormed the border into Kharkiv last week.

This takes Russia’s total personnel losses since the war began to 493,690, according to Ukraine.

Kyiv estimates Moscow has also lost 7,590 tanks, 14,665 armoured fighting vehicles, 17,311 non-fighting vehicles and fuel tanks, 12,737 artillery systems and much more – including 10,236 drones.

Moscow did not respond to these new figures.

The last time Russia publicly announced the death toll from the war was in September 2022, when it said 5,937 troops had been killed in combat.

Related...

Business Insider
Village on Ukraine's doorstep set to become NATO's biggest European airbase as Putin vows to go 'to the end' in the war
The base is located only around 12 miles from the Black Sea coast and 180 miles from the war-torn city of Odesa in southern Ukraine.
The Telegraph
Ukrainian Atacms blows up over Crimean beach forcing sunbathers to flee as Russia claims five killed
Shrapnel from an intercepted US-made missile fired by Ukraine hit a beach packed with sunbathing tourists in occupied Crimea on Sunday.
The Telegraph
Why it’s too late to stop World War 3
Imagine, for a moment, that the Iranian government announces it has developed a nuclear bomb and threatens to use it on Israel. The United States reacts with the threat of military intervention, as it did in 1991 and 2003 in Iraq. Iran signals that it will not tolerate a third Gulf war and looks for allies. American forces mass to enter Iran, which orders national mobilisation. Russia, China and North Korea express their support for Iran, and Washington expands its intervention force, bringing i
Business Insider
Ukraine needs to stop fighting the war Russia wants
Ukraine is trapped in a conflict that plays to Russia's strengths and must devise a new strategy with its Western allies, a Ukrainian expert argues.
The Telegraph
The media has led the country into an anti-Tory fervour
When Sir Keir Starmer walked onto the stage for last Thursday’s edition of Question Time, he was audibly booed.
The Telegraph
‘I wished my mother a speedy execution, I didn’t want her to be tortured’
Mona Mahmoudi’s parents were among the first members of Iran’s Baha’i religious minority to be executed under the Islamic Republic’s decades-long crackdown.
The Telegraph
Exclusive: Emmanuel Macron has triggered France’s Brexit moment, warns Michel Barnier
Emmanuel Macron has driven his country to the brink of a “Frexit” moment, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator has said.
The Telegraph
Nigel Farage has just proven that he’s not a serious leader
Nigel Farage’s analysis of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine could hardly be more wrong. He claims that Nato and EU expansion was provocative. In fact it was Western weakness and timidity that encouraged Putin’s aggression in 2022. Rather than making any attempt to oppose Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014, or helping Ukraine to do so, Western governments called on Kyiv to take no action that might lead to escalation. In spirit, it was a foreshadowing of Joe Biden’s offer in February 2022 to
The Telegraph
Brexit is working for Britain
Eight years ago today, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. The British people collectively decided that it was time to reclaim our islands’ sovereignty. It was the right decision then – and it remains the right decision now.
The Telegraph
Sacked police chief who lied about Navy career reported by ex-wife
The wife of a chief constable who was sacked for lying about his military service has revealed that she reported him after feeling “sickened” at the disrespect he had shown genuine veterans.
The Telegraph
Tories fall to new low in latest poll as Reform closes gap to three points
The Conservatives have dropped to a new polling low, with Reform UK closing the gap to just three points.
CNN
Judge Aileen Cannon pushes Trump’s lawyer to defend claim that special counsel is part of a ‘shadow government’
One day after it was reported that two federal judges urged Judge Aileen Cannon not to oversee the classified documents case against Donald Trump, three days of hearings began that could determine the future of the charges against the former president.
Business Insider
Russia's talking about a 6th-generation fighter jet while its Su-57 sits out the Ukraine war
Russia claims to be developing a 6th-generation fighter jet for deployment by 2050. But its 5th-gen Su-57s haven't been active in the war in Ukraine.
The Telegraph
The West’s errors in Ukraine have been catastrophic. I won’t apologise for telling the truth
Don’t blame me for telling the truth about Putin’s war in Ukraine. Facing up the facts about the mistakes of the past has to be the first step towards the peaceful future we all want to see.
HuffPost UK
Exclusive: Majority Of Voters Want Next Government To Take UK Back Into European Union
New poll shows the result of the 2016 Brexit referendum has been reversed.
The Guardian
Tory MPs paid £100,000 of public funds to party’s in-house web designers
Exclusive: Conservatives including Hunt and Truss used Bluetree for websites and claimed costs as expenses
Associated Press
Thousands of Iran-backed fighters offer to join Hezbollah in its fight against Israel
Thousands of fighters from Iran-backed groups in the Middle East are ready to come to Lebanon to join with the militant Hezbollah group in its battle with Israel if the simmering conflict escalates into a full-blown war, officials with Iran-backed factions and analysts say. Almost daily exchanges of fire have occurred along Lebanon's frontier with northern Israel since fighters from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip staged a bloody assault on southern Israel in early October that set off a war in Gaza. The situation to the north worsened this month after an Israeli airstrike killed a senior Hezbollah military commander in southern Lebanon.
Business Insider
Vladimir Putin gifted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a 2nd luxury armored limo — check it out
Russian President Vladimir Putin gifted Kim the Aurus Senat car during his first to North Korea in 24 years.
Sky News
Liz Truss' constituency hangs in the balance after voters look to cast ballots on her record as PM
In 2019 Liz Truss was once again elected MP for South West Norfolk - her fourth election win. The then international trade secretary and later prime minister romped home to victory with nearly 70% of the vote. Another talked about how she couldn't vote for Truss because her daughter's mortgage had risen three times in the past 18 months.
The Telegraph
Letters: Overhaul Britain’s electoral system so voters’ voices can truly be heard
SIR – Tim Pope (Letters, June 16) is right about proportional representation: it would break the constituency link, put governments in hock to minority interests and let tiny extremist parties cling to power. Then again, the whipped party system has led to very few MPs having the independence and authority to vote according to their conscience and in the interests of their constituency. What we need is either Single Transferable Vote or Alternative Vote. These would turn elections into clear pol

Related...

Latest stories