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The Kiev regime’s much-hyped counteroffensive is simply disinformation, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said.
"The three days of the ‘counteroffensive’: what we’re observing and the information we’ve received from the Russian president are in complete congruence. Over three days, about three dozen advancing Ukrainian tanks and 120 or 130 infantry fighting vehicles have been eliminated, and, what’s most horrible, more than 2,100 Ukrainians have been killed, with slightly over 70 [fatalities] on this side. This is the result of this attempt at a counteroffensive. Well, I’ve always said this, the counteroffensive is a major piece of disinformation. There is no counteroffensive and cannot be a counteroffensive, but if there is one, then here’s the result from it over three days," he said at a meeting in Minsk with members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Committee of Security Council Secretaries.
According to Lukashenko, the Kiev regime’s Western handlers are currently scrambling to analyze the causes of Ukraine’s military failures.
"Yesterday I talked with [Russian President] Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] and we are absolutely of the same opinion that the current situation is all about the West, which is fighting there, waiting to see the results of the ‘counteroffensive,’ and naturally, if not for all the Western weapons and mercenaries, the whole thing would have ended long ago," the Belarusian leader added.
Shoigu: Ukraine Loses 350 Troops After Failing to Break Russian Defense
Up to 1,500 Ukrainian military attempted to break through Russian defense lines on Wednesday night, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday.
"Today at 1:30 a.m. (local time, 22:30 GMT on Wednesday), the enemy totaling up to 1,500 military and 150 armored vehicles attempted to break through our defense in the Zaporozhye direction," Shoigu told reporters.
Ukraine lost up to 350 military, as well as 30 tanks and 11 infantry fighting vehicles as a result of a two-hour battle, the minister said.
"The reconnaissance forces detected the enemy in a timely manner, delivered a preventive strike by artillery, aviation and anti-tank weapons," Shoigu said. Kiev has been promising a "counter-offensive" for the past month, but Ukrainian troops have failed to advance, only losing several key positions, including the city of Artemovsk in the DPR. However, Ukraine has boosted its activity on the frontlines following Kiev's attack on the Novaya Kakhovka dam, which led to the flooding of a major area in Russia's Kherson region.
Watch Russian Ka-52 'Alligator' Attack Helicopter Fire at Enemy
The Kamov Ka-52 attack helicopter, in service with Russia's Air Force, is capable of effectively eliminating enemy targets in combat zones, while also swiftly dodging retaliatory fire.
Russian Air Force Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter crews have been shown in combat in footage released by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
As part of Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine, Ka-52s fired unguided bombs to engage Ukrainian positions.
The precise strike at the designated target was confirmed by a forward air controller.
The Ka-52 Alligator is a twin-seat all-weather attack helicopter developed by the Kamov Design Bureau, based on the Ka-50 Black Shark helicopter.
EU Fails to Agree New Sanctions Against Russia as Economic Pinch Takes Toll
The European Union and its US allies slapped crushing sanctions on Moscow in early 2022 after the long-smoldering Donbass crisis escalated into a full-blown NATO-Russia proxy war in Ukraine. The strategy backfired, thrusting the EU into an unprecedented energy crisis and threatening the bloc with large-scale deindustrialization.
EU countries failed again to agree on an 11th package of sanctions against Russia in talks Wednesday, with negotiations expected to continue next week, four diplomats with direct knowledge of the situation have told European media.
The proposed restrictions, said to be focused on efforts by Russia and its partners to circumvent earlier enacted sanctions, are reportedly being held up by Hungarian and Greek indignation amid efforts to label their national companies operating in Russia as “war sponsors.” France and Germany have also reportedly asked for measures to soften the proposed sanctions amid fears of the impact they could have on ties with affected countries besides Russia.
The United States has accused five countries – Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates, of being particular egregious violators of the West’s sanctions policy against Moscow.
On Wednesday, State Department sanctions coordinator Jim O’Brien complained that European companies have sold vast quantities of goods to third parties which then resold them to Russia, enabling Moscow to “reimport certain key categories of electronics at about pre-war levels.”
Sanctions Blunted
The EU’s anti-circumvention restrictions resemble the ‘secondary sanctions’ regularly used by the United States, which threatens to target third countries doing business with America’s adversaries. Washington used such sanctions for decades against countries like Iran, Cuba and North Korea. However, the restrictions faltered last year after being applied against Russia, not only failing to achieve their goal of collapsing the Russian economy, but prompting most of the world outside the US and Europe to reject efforts to isolate Russia.
The negotiations on the EU’s 11th package of sanctions comes after the approval of the 10th package in February, with those restrictions including entry bans, export bans, and asset freezes.
The European Union has now slapped over 1,500 sanctions on Russia since February 2022. Russia is by far the most heavily-sanctioned nation on Earth, with its 13,260+ total restrictions more numerous than all Western sanctions on Iran, Syria, North Korea, Belarus, Venezuela and Myanmar combined.
But the sanctions have largely failed to achieve their objective, with Russia’s GDP resuming growth in 2023 after a 2.5 percent contraction in 2022, and Moscow working intensively to expand trade ties with China, India, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America after being frozen out of Western markets.
Meanwhile, European nations have faced recession and the threat of deindustrialization amid rising energy and food prices after a halt in imports of Russian oil, gas, coal and fertilizers left many industries uncompetitive against Asian and US counterparts.
Russia warned about precisely such an eventuality in the spring of 2022, when President Putin cautioned his EU counterparts that restrictions on Russian energy purchases at Washington’s behest would constitute a form of "economic suicide."
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