On January 15, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army, Mr. Valery Gerasimov, said that the country's army continues to gain more advantages on the battlefield, despite Ukrainian defense activities.
Speaking at a meeting with military commanders, Mr. Gerasimov said that the Russian army is attacking almost the entire front line, and has controlled 8 more settlements and more than 300km2 of territory since the beginning of the month.
According to Mr. Gerasimov, Ukraine left a large gap in the defense line because it focused too much on deploying counter-attack operations without paying attention to its own losses. As a result, Russian forces successfully broke the enemy's plans thanks to their resilient fighting spirit, close advisory work and effective command.
Mr. Gerasimov noted that Kiev often seeks to create a military presence image in areas where there is actually no force, including the use of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to fly Ukrainian flags. According to him, these efforts have been prevented by Russia.
The meeting took place during an inspection of the Central Operations Cluster, a unit he said has recently participated in the fiercest battles.
Russia has repeatedly accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of ignoring reality and refusing to compromise, in the context of US President Donald Trump proposing to mediate.
On January 14, Mr. Trump also expressed a similar view, and emphasized that it was not President Putin but Mr. Zelensky who caused the peace process to fall into deadlock.
The US President believes that heavy casualties - about 30,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers killed each month - are the main reason he wants to end the conflict soon.
