C T Online Desk: Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested Tuesday that he could order his troops to try to seize more land in Ukraine to protect bordering Russian territory — a threat with questionable credibility because the Kremlin lacks full control over areas it already annexed.
In some of his most detailed remarks about the war in months, the Russian leader also asserted that Ukrainian forces had suffered “catastrophic” losses in a new counteroffensive, and he said he was not contemplating a new troop mobilization, as many Russians have feared. But he did not rule out another troop call-up later. And he reiterated Russia’s claim that Ukraine was responsible for blowing up a Dnieper River dam that caused vast flooding on both sides of the front line last week in the country’s south.
Putin’s comments at an open meeting with military journalists and bloggers followed Kyiv’s claims that Ukrainian troops had captured a handful of villages in the early stages of the counteroffensive as they seek to push Russian troops out of four regions of Ukraine the Kremlin illegally annexed last fall. The meeting, which lasted more than two hours, came after Russian missile strikes in central Ukraine killed at least 11 people overnight.
Putin said Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been unsuccessful. He asserted that Ukraine lost 160 tanks and over 360 other armored vehicles, while Russia lost 54 tanks since the new assault began. Those claims could not be immediately verified. Ukrainian officials typically do not comment on losses.
The White House offered no immediate reaction to Putin’s claims.
A U.S. official familiar with American intelligence said Putin’s comments were “not accurate” and cautioned against putting any stock in Russia’s public assessments. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to offer an internal assessment, did not detail how Putin’s claims were misleading.
Referring to alleged Ukrainian incursions into Russia and shelling of border regions, Putin said he was considering whether “to create on Ukrainian territory a kind of sanitary zone at such a distance from which it would be impossible to get our territory.”
It was not clear whether Russia — which failed to capture Kyiv and its surroundings early in the war and later had to give up other territory it had captured, even in annexed areas — could afford to risk expanding its gains in Ukraine while trying to repel the evolving counteroffensive in several sectors of the more than 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.
In recent weeks, Russia’s border areas have come under increasing attack, with the Kremlin blaming Ukrainian forces for incursions of fighters and drone strikes.
