MOSCOW: The front lines in Ukraine have reached an impasse, as parity in equipment, training and morale between Russian and Ukrainian forces stalls momentum on both sides, nationalist Russian senator Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview.
“(The map of the front lines) is moving with enormous difficulty, at a colossal price, which our military is paying in order for it to move,” Rogozin, who has fought in Ukraine, told the Bloknot media outlet in an interview published on Russian social media site VKontakte on September 19.
“Nevertheless we are moving, our pressure is definitely there. Victory will be ours, the question is just at what price. And the price will be very big.”
Russia’s slow advance is tactical, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, a day after US President Donald Trump said Russia has been fighting “aimlessly” in Ukraine.
In a striking rhetorical shift in Ukraine’s favor, Trump said that a “real military power” would have won the war in less than a week, describing Russia as a “paper tiger.” Trump, who has sometimes echoed Russia’s views on the conflict, said he believed Ukraine could retake all the land occupied by Russia.
