Interview with Russian Minister of Defence General of Army Sergei Shoigu
- Since the spring the Western countries has long been frightening everyone with an offensive by the AFU forward Zaporozhye and Crimea. Huge amounts of NATO arms and equipment were supplied to the Kiev regime for this purpose. Today, the NATO summit begins in Vilnius.
What wouldn’t they tell about the results of their plans?
In my opinion, they promoted and escalated the counter-offensive so much that practically, if not half the world, then a third of it was waiting for the 11th. To summarise what they had achieved during this widely publicised and announced, as they called it, ‘strategic’ counter-offensive.
In the end, what did they come to the NATO summit with?
Since 4 June, the enemy losses have amounted to more than twenty-six thousand servicemen and three thousand units of various armaments.
Destroyed: 21 aircraft, 5 helicopters, 1,244 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles. Among them were 17 German-manufactured Leopard tanks, five French-manufactured AMX wheeled tanks and 12 U.S.-manufactured Bradley IFVs.
In addition, we destroyed 914 units of special military vehicles, two anti-aircraft missile systems, 25 multiple-launch rocket systems, 403 field artillery and mortars.
This is an important figure, because the main damage is always inflicted by artillery.
I will repeat once again - 403 guns, including 43 U.S.-manufactured M777 artillery systems and 46 self-propelled artillery systems from Poland, the United States and France.
Russian air defence facilities intercepted 176 HIMARS projectiles, 27 Storm Shadow cruise missiles and 483 unmanned aerial vehicles.
The enemy did not achieve its objectives in any of the directions.
Moreover, we continue to carry out effective strikes with long-range precision weapons against AFU reserves and military equipment arriving from the Western countries, significantly reducing the enemy offensive potential.
We know that the results of our combat work are carefully monitored and analysed by foreign intelligence, primarily by the United States and NATO countries.
They note the high efficiency of our defence lines, the mines set up, the quality of the work of the Army and Ground-Attack aviation in launching pre-emptive strikes against identified enemy targets.
They particularly emphasise, they stress, the supreme steadfastness of our servicemen and the prompt response of our commanders to changes in the situation.
2. Are the AFU continuing their unsuccessful ‘cannon fodder’ assaults?
Yes, they are conducting active combat operations, trying to break through our defences in various directions. Just in the last two days several waves of attacks were launched against the units of the 7th Company of the 70th Motorised Rifle Regiment and the 291st Regiment of the 42nd Motorised Rifle Division. As a result of two days of almost continuous fighting, the enemy lost up to 90 men, 4 tanks, including 3 Leopard tanks, and 15 IFVs, including 6 Bradley tanks.
In Krasny Liman direction, the assault detachments of the 15th and 21st motorised rifle brigades of the Tsentr Group of Forces repelled an attack by an AFU motorised infantry company close to Karmazinovka.
I would like to emphasise in particular that, despite his busy schedule, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief listens in detail twice a day to the command of the combined grouping, as well as to the commanders on the situation. All commanders at all levels understand and feel the full measure of the responsibility that has been placed on them and honourably carry out their tasks.
3. Washington announced that U.S. will supply the Kiev regime with cluster munitions. How that fact alone will change the course of the special military operation?
The world has already witnessed the U.S. willingness to send cluster munitions. Washington justifies it in different ways. They say that given the fact that conventional ammunition of 155 caliber has actually run out, so now until their production is deployed, they decided to cover it with these cluster munitions.
Naturally, it will result in prolonging the conflict
Neither we, nor the Americans, nor Kiev are the sides of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
At the same time, Russia, realising the threat such weaponry pose to civilian population, has refrained and will refrain from using them in the special military operation area.
In the event that the United States supplies cluster munitions to Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces will be forced to use similar weapons against the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a response.
It should be noted that Russia has cluster munitions in service for all occasions. Also are much more effective than American ones, we have more types of that particular weaponry for different purposes.
At present, the command of the Joint Group of Forces in the special military operation area is taking additional organisational and technical measures to protect personnel and hardware from the destructive elements of cluster munitions.
4. You visit enterprises of the defence industry complex on a regular basis. What can you tell us about the status of the state defence order to satisfy all needs of the Russian Armed Forces?
A lot of work is put into it, to say the least. All effortsbegan last year.
In the shortest possible time, the enterprises of the military industrial complex managed to increase the production of most needed types of weaponry, military and special hardware, as well as means of destruction to perform combat missions. And, most importantly, to ensure their accelerated delivery to the troops.
From March 2022, the number of purchased and modernised main weaponry, military and special hardware supplied under the state defence order has been increased by 1.8 times.
And in 2023 more than 5 times compared to the beginning of 2022.
Here are some examples:
Deliveries of Orlan-10 and Orlan-30 UAVs have increased by 53 times. There are working 24/7, and they work very efficiently.
KAMAZ increased deliveries of multipurpose vehicles by 17.6 times.
Uralvagonzavod increased deliveries and overhaul of T-72 and T-90 tanks by 3.6 times.
Kurgan Machine-Building Plant increased supplies and overhaul of IFV-3 by 2.1 times;
Arzamas Machine-Building Plant increased deliveries of BTR-82A by 4 times, and Tigr-M by 2 times;
As for Army aviation, the supplies of Ka-52 helicopters increased by 2 times, Mi-28 by 3 times.
Ural Automobile Plant increased deliveries of cars by almost 8 times.
Almost the similar growth for a wide range of ammunition of different calibre and purpose.
Purchases of necessary means of destruction in 2022 were increased by 2 times.
And in 2023, due to the expansion of production facilities, for which special thanks to all those involved in this, working round-the-clock without any days off, we have increased the amount of ammunition produced by our industry by more than 10 times compared to the beginning of last year.