“The mobilization shows that Russia has run out of a professional army,” Podolyak told Politico. “This army is being replaced by absolutely untrained people. A living resource has been thrown onto the front lines, and it will simply be exterminated.”
In Putin’s latest escalation in the war with Ukraine, the Russian president formally announced the annexation of four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine on Friday. However, Podolyak dismissed the move as unimportant.
“For our plans, [annexation] doesn’t matter,” he said.
Russian troops on Saturday withdrew from the city of Lyman in the Donetsk region — one of the four regions that Putin had laid claim to just the day before. Ukrainian officials had previously said they had surrounded the city.
Podolyak said in a separate interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that Ukraine will not participate in negotiations with Russia until its forces leave Ukrainian territory, including Crimea. Russia annexed that region in 2014.
“Russia does not want to negotiate – it only launches ultimatums,” Podolyak told La Repubblica. “If the Russian army leaves the entire territory of Ukraine, including Crimea, the negotiations could resume.”
Bkmk