Mark Rutte, NATO’s Secretary General, has said Vladimir Putin is failing on the battlefield and in his hybrid campaign against Europe, with early reporting suggesting Russian losses passed fifty thousand in October, according to remarks made on board HMS Prince of Wales in Oslo.
Speaking at the Atlantic Future Forum on Armistice Day, Rutte said: “Putin is failing on the battlefield.”
He said: “In the past few months, Russia has been losing more than 40,000 troops, killed or seriously wounded every month.” He compared the monthly toll with the number of Americans killed over more than a decade in Vietnam, and added: “In October, early reporting indicates this number may have climbed to over 50,000. 50,000 in one month.”
Rutte said Putin is trying to break Ukraine’s will to fight by targeting civilians, hitting Ukrainian cities with missiles and drones as winter approaches, and has ramped up hostile actions across Europe. He said: “Putin is trying to divide us, destabilize our societies, and disrupt our support for Ukraine with arson, drone incidents, cyber attacks, and other malicious activities. But let’s be clear: he is failing. For every Russian hybrid attack against our nations, we are sending more support to Ukraine.”
He also said Russia is striking shipping in the Black Sea as he spoke and continues to put its shadow fleet to sea.
Britain’s Defence Intelligence has previously reported record Russian casualties, and Rutte has said Russia is pouring half its budget into the war. Rutte did not say where the October figure came from.
Regarding the recent UAE ‘peace talks’, Moscow made it clear that any new security system will require the former Warsaw Pact and Baltic states to withdraw from NATO.
That, clear as day, tells us exactly what Russia’s intentions are in the longer term. Despite massive casualties, the war may at some stage pause but it will not end.
Part of the reason for Russia’s boldness is a clear failure of NATO’s conventional deterrent. Britain’s weakness is a major contributing factor to that failure.
It does not matter that Putin is”failing” on the battlefield. He is happy to keep failing fighting and killing, he still gets a warm bed at night. Not of it matters while the Facist estate agents do his bidding at sham peace talks and his lunatic special agent number one continues to trash what little reputation the Yanks have left. Putin and Russia will subdue Ukraine eventually probably in around 10-15 years time when they get close to Kyiv or the Ukrainians themselves sue for peace on Russia terms. You only have to look at the nutter leading Russias team talking to Dimkopf and Crushner to see the mentality of the Russian state. Rutte is delusional and I take these casualty figures with a barrel load of salt