Russian Security Chief: No Prospects for Settlement with Ukraine
Sept. 27, 2023 (EIRNS)—Russian Security Council chairman Nikolai Patrushev, in Cairo yesterday for meetings with his Egyptian counterpart, said there are still no prospects for the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. TASS, citing Rossiskaya Gazeta, reported that Patrushev pointed out that Russia supports the position of Egypt and a number of other African countries on mediation in the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. However, “as of today, the prospects for such a solution are not visible,” he said. “Ukraine will not be allowed to go for a peace agreement and will continue to be used as a tool against Russia,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta quoted Patrushev as saying.
At the same time, he thanked his Egyptian partners for their balanced position on the Ukrainian crisis. “We welcome Cairo’s refusal to supply arms to the Kiev regime. At the same time, we understand that such a decision was taken despite serious pressure from the Americans and Europeans,” Patrushev said.
“The Ukrainian army’s counteroffensive has faltered. Ukraine continues to sustain huge human losses and destroy its own infrastructure,” the Rossiyskaya Gazeta quoted him as saying further. “As for the Western weapons that have been supplied to the Kiev regime, they have turned out to be ineffective against Russian weapons and Ukraine keeps on losing them on the battlefield,” he added.
Patrushev’s point on Ukraine not being allowed to go for peace was echoed by Russian Defense Minsiter Sergei Shoigu in his opening remarks to a meeting of the Defense Ministry Board yesterday. “Despite the absence of any meaningful results of the so-called counter-offensive, Ukraine’s Western handlers are not deviating from their inhuman principle: ‘weapons are the way to peace,’” he said. “The United States and its allies continue to arm the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while the Kiev regime continues to throw untrained soldiers into senseless assaults and slaughter. Such cynical actions by the West and their henchmen in Kiev are only pushing Ukraine towards self-destruction.”
Shoigu also reported that Ukrainian forces have suffered more than 17,000 casualties this month, and that Russian forces have destroyed more than 2,700 pieces of military hardware, including 51 self-propelled artillery systems from Germany, France, Poland, and the United States, 77 American M777 artillery systems, seven American Bradley IFVs, two German-made Leopard tanks, and one UK-made Challenger tank
