WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Zelenskiy says Ukraine deployed more drones than Russia in July

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Ukraine was making good progress in manufacturing and employing drones and had used more of them last month in combat than had Russia.

Speaking in his nightly video address, Zelenskiy thanked all Ukrainian servicemen for their efforts in combat "in particular, all those soldiers and commanders who make good use of our possibilities with drones.

"Our Ukrainian defence forces are already leading the way in this regard, and in July our forces used more drones than did the occupiers," he said.

"This must become a sustainable trend at the front - across all types of drones that are in our units."

He said drones, including long-range versions, "are already affecting the war in strategic terms".

Ukraine is boosting its production capacity with help from its Western partners and the country's manufacturers will exceed over the course of 2024 contractual plans to produce one million drones, the president said.

Zelenskiy and other officials have long stressed the need for increased drone production and Ukrainian forces have increased long-range attacks on targets inside Russia, including oil refineries and other infrastructure.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian security chief estimates Ukraine’s military losses this summer

The Ukrainian military has lost more than 115,000 servicemen in the conflict with Moscow over the past two months, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu has claimed.

Some 3,000 units of equipment and more than 3,000 cars operated by Kiev’s troops have also been destroyed since June 14, he told journalists on Tuesday.

During the same period, the Russian military was able to capture 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) of territory from the Ukrainian forces, added Shoigu, who was Russia’s defense minister until a government reshuffle in May.

"All this could have been stopped if the demands set out by our president had been met [by Ukraine]. Therefore, our position is clear – the troops are moving forward,” he said.

In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Moscow would immediately open peace talks with Kiev if it withdrew its troops from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, which officially became part of the Russian state in the fall of 2022. According to Putin, Ukraine must also commit to maintaining a neutral status, “demilitarization,” and “denazification” as part of a possible deal.

Vladimir Zelensky instantly rejected the Russian president’s offer, describing it as an “ultimatum” and unacceptable. NATO, which is backing Kiev in the conflict, also described the proposal as “not serious.”

Shoigu stated that “every day of delay in making such a decision [on negotiations] results in the loss of control [by Kiev] over another part of territory that the Ukrainians consider theirs, and, most importantly, the loss of thousands of human lives.”

The Ukrainian people are “paying a high price”for the “illusion” of Zelensky and his associates that “the Europeans will organize another beautiful peace summit for Kiev, at which all their internal problems will resolve themselves,” he added.

"The window of opportunity for Ukraine is narrowing. The choice is up to the Ukrainian people,” the secretary of the Security Council warned.

Zelensky, who previously outright rejected the possibility of peace talks with Moscow, has recently changed his tune of the issue. He wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday that his administration was aiming to work out a basis for a “just end” to the conflict with Russia this year.

However, he again insisted on implementing his so-called ‘peace formula’, which demands that Russia withdraw its troops from all territory claimed by Ukraine. Moscow has previously dismissed this plan as “detached from reality.”

In June, Putin said Ukraine was losing five times more troops than the Russian military, according to Moscow’s estimates.

Reuters/RT