Kiev could have avoided such high casualties by agreeing to Moscow’s peace offer, Sergey Shoigu has said
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 said.
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.”
