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Shoigu: Ukraine has almost run out of military resources
Published 8/17/2023
Ukraine's counter-offensive has failed and the country has "almost run out of military resources". This is what Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claims.
During Tuesday, an "international security conference" was held on the outskirts of Moscow. The event has been held every year since 2012, and this year's conference was thus the eleventh in a row.
Less than usual
Upwards of a hundred countries, some of which have disputed international status, had been invited. Mainly countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Not a NATO country, but US ally Israel received a formal, public invitation.
This year's conference was considerably smaller than previous years, although the occasional influential delegate was present. For example, China's Minister of Defense Li Shangfu, who took the opportunity to give a speech and warn the outside world to get involved in the situation in Taiwan.
- It is a strictly internal matter for China, and for outsiders to interfere is unacceptable, he said.
Li Shangfu. Photo: Kremlin
Shangfu was the fourth speaker at the conference, following a video speech from Russian President Vladimir Putin, a speech from Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and a read greeting from Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko, who, like Putin, did not attend in person.
However, the top Chinese politician was allowed to speak before both Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, both of whom were present.
Another of the speakers, although considerably further down the list of speakers, was Austria's former foreign minister Karin Kneissl. She was forced out of Austrian politics in 2019, accused of spreading the Kremlin's political agenda, and now works for the Russian state. Kneissl, who grew up in Jordan, began his speech in Arabic in a gesture to the many Arabic-speaking delegates.
Karin Kneissl. Photo: Kremlin”
"Ukraine has almost run out of military resources"
However, the speech yesterday that has received the most attention in the outside world is that of the Russian Defense Minister. He claimed that the talked-about Ukrainian counter-offensive, which has now been going on for more than ten weeks, has failed.
- Preliminary results from the fighting show that Ukraine's military resources have almost completely run out, Shoigu said.
He also claimed that the weapons Ukraine receives from the West are overestimated, and that the Russians have succeeded in knocking out a large amount of Western weapons.
- In many cases, even Soviet-made equipment is superior in the field compared to Western models, the Russian defense minister admitted.
Fight against neo-Nazism
Sergei Shoigu spoke of the war as a fight against neo-Nazism, fascism and "modern neo-colonialism". In Russia, the war is seen as the "collective West's" attack on Russia, and parallels are often and willingly drawn to Nazi Germany's attack during the Second World War.
Shoigu accused Ukraine, and the United States, of committing war crimes and violations of international law. Among other things, through the use of cluster munitions – a type of weapon that the Russian Defense Minister claims that Russia does not use.
- So far, for humanitarian reasons, we have refrained from using such. But we will now review that decision, said Sergej Shojgu.
cloudsandwind
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