MOSCOW, Dec 31 — Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu mentioned victory for Russia in excess of Ukraine was “inevitable” as he hailed Russian soldiers’ heroism in a New Year’s online video information.
Moscow’s defence main, who has been closely criticised by pro-war voices in Russia for battlefield failures through the 10-thirty day period campaign, explained the problem on the frontlines remained “difficult” and lambasted Ukraine and the West for hoping to consist of Russia.
“We meet up with the New 12 months in a tricky army-political problem,” Shoigu claimed. “At a time when there are those people who are striving to erase our superb background and good achievements, demolish monuments to the victors over fascism, place war criminals on a pedestal, terminate and desecrate anything Russian.”
With bloody preventing ongoing throughout the 1,000-km frontline, and Russia not getting secured any territorial gains because the to start with months of the war, Shoigu explained to Russian troopers: “Victory, like the New Calendar year, is inevitable.”
Shoigu also praised the “immortal steps, selfless braveness and heroism” demonstrated by Russian troops fighting what he named “neo-Nazism and terrorism”.
Kyiv and the West have rejected Russia’s assertion it is fighting “Nazis” in Ukraine as a baseless pretext for President Vladimir Putin’s try to seize territory and topple Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a war of unprovoked aggression.
Moscow had predicted swift victory in what it phone calls a “special navy operation”, but Ukraine’s spirited resistance and billions of bucks of Western arms have assisted Kyiv flip the tide of the war and mount a sequence of stunning counteroffensives. Ukraine has now reclaimed much more than fifty percent of the territory seized by Russia throughout the initial months of its invasion. — Reuters