Russia says it has achieved ‘largely’ its goal of demilitarizing Ukraine

This Sunday, Russia considered that the goal of Ukraine’s demilitarization, proclaimed when it invaded a neighboring country almost 16 months ago, had already been “largely” achieved.

“Ukraine is using less and less of its own weapons and more and more Western-supplied weapons systems,” Kremlin (Russian Presidential) spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

As a result, one of the tasks proposed by the Russian side “was actually carried out to a large extent,” he said, quoted by the Spanish agency EFE.

Peskov assured that Ukraine was “heavily militarized” a year and a half ago, which cannot be said now.

On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered what Moscow continues to call a “special military operation” in Ukraine to “demilitarize and denazify” the country.

The operation also aimed to protect the Russian-speaking population of Donbass in eastern Ukraine, a region made up of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Putin said this week that the war aims have been adapted throughout the campaign, but without fundamental changes.

Russian-imposed Donetsk leader Denis Pushilin commented on the statement by a Kremlin spokesman, saying that Peskov meant only weapons that Ukraine already had and had been destroyed.

“In this part, demilitarization has been completed, but this does not mean that denazification cannot be carried out,” Russian TASS news agency quoted Pushilin as saying.

In other statements cited by RIA Novosti, the pro-Russian leader insisted that the completion of demilitarization would not prevent Russia from continuing to liberate territories in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

Russia annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye in September, about seven months after the war began.

Moscow had already annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014, when the separatist war in Donbas began, with Russian support.

Kyiv and the wider international community do not recognize Russian sovereignty in the five regions annexed to Ukraine.

Ukraine is conducting a counter-offensive in areas occupied by Russian troops, which has led to heavy losses on both sides, the British Ministry of Defense said today.

“In the south, Russian forces often conduct relatively effective defensive operations. Both sides are suffering heavy losses, with Russian casualties likely to be the highest since the Battle of Bakhmut peaked in March,” he said.

In a daily assessment released by the Ministry of Defence, British intelligence agencies said intense fighting was continuing, especially “in the Zaporizhia area, in the western part of Donetsk and around Bakhmut.”

“In all these areas, Ukraine continues to conduct offensive operations and has made little progress,” they added.

Information about the progress of the war made public by both sides cannot be immediately verified by independent sources.