Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the leaders of Ukraine sounded like "aliens" who show no mercy to the people, make ruthless decisions while he praised friends and partners like India who seek to resolve the conflict.
"Sometimes I get the feeling that those ruling Ukraine are like some aliens or some foreigners. They do not think. you see, their losses are colossal. I even cannot imagine what they are going to do further," he said at the plenary of the Eastern Economic Forum, reported RT.
The President of Russia recalled that, at the outbreak of the conflict, his country and Ukraine had come close to an agreement on a peace treaty based on neutrality for the latter, during the discussions in Istanbul, but he accused the Western powers of having torpedoed these first advances because they wanted the "strategic defeat" of Russia.
He highlighted in this respect, certain questions about the behavior of Ukraine.
He said the only option for Kiev is to lower the maximum age of conscription once again, and this would enable them "to recruit children, as the German Nazis did with the Hitler Youth". This is in reference to how Adolf Hitler's regime forced teenagers into makeshift militias in the closing stages of the Second War as the Allies advanced into German territory.
"But this, he said, won't solve the problem… Further, students have to be called up, to bleed the country white. Again, as if Ukrainians were not their people," Putin said.
"They don't really think about the country. But they disguise it with nationalist slogans, deceiving people."
Ukraine announced general mobilisation shortly after the outbreak of the conflict with Russia, but draft-dodging and graft proved widespread. In this spring, in an attempt to make up for military losses, the Ukrainian government adopted two bills: one that reduced the draft age from 27 to 25 years, and another which drastically stiffened the rules governing mobilisation.
The Russian leader also opined that the heavy casualties incurred by the Ukrainian military since its incursion into Russia's Kursk Region could render its armed forces useless.
He said the Ukrainian attempt to disrupt the Russian advance with the massive attack across the border last month had backfired.
"Our military has stabilized the situation and is now gradually pushing the opponent from the border territories. More importantly, there is no resistance to our advancement-in Donbass. The opponent has weakened itself on the key axis by moving those relatively strong and well-trained units to the border areas," he said, as per RT.
Kyiv had gambled that Moscow would send part of its forces stationed in the east to counter the incursion from the north, but this gamble did not pay off, the leading Ukrainian general Aleksandr Syrsky has just admitted.
Putin said the forces in Donbass - one of Moscow's priorities - had been securing more and more land at a pace unseen in a long time, while the Ukrainian army was "suffering very high losses in manpower and hardware.".
Because of that, one risks a collapse of the front line on the most important axis. The casualties may result in a loss of fighting capability of the entire armed forces, which is what we are looking to achieve," he added.
At the same moment when the Russian Defense Ministry estimated that Ukrainian casualties in the Kursk operation had surpassed 9,700 men, besides 81 tanks, dozens of other armoured vehicles, and several heavy weapons, Putin told the audience that the intelligence had been confirmed by many sources.
He praised nations who were "sincerely interested" in resolving the conflict and its issues.
"We respect our friends and partners who I think are sincerely interested in addressing and resolving all the issues associated with the conflict, with Ukraine. China, Brazil, India. I am in contact with my partners, and I have no doubt that the leaders of these countries, and we have the relations of trust and confidence with one another, will be really interested in providing a helping hand," he said.
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