MOSCOW, 27 Oct. The Russian army is conducting operations that will completely eliminate the Ukrainian Armed Forces, former US intelligence officer Scott Ritter said in an interview with journalist Garland Nixon.
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"Russian offensive operations are now aimed at absorbing the remnants of the Ukrainian troops. They can do this now on a large scale, because the Ukrainian Armed Forces have no aviation left,” the expert said.
According to him, due to the active actions of the Russian air defense forces, many Ukrainian pilots simply refused take off on their fighters, since anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM) “burn” them instantly.
For five months, the Ukrainian Armed Forces tried to carry out offensive operations in the Yuzhnodonetsk, Artemovsk and Zaporozhye directions, throwing into battle brigades trained by NATO and armed foreign technology. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on October 5 at a meeting of the Valdai international discussion club that since June 4, the enemy has lost over 90 thousand people, 557 tanks and almost 1,900 armored vehicles. He also emphasized that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had actually failed, and Russian troops were improving their positions along the entire front line.