Shoigu: ‘Conscripts will not be sent to any hotspots’
“The main tasks of the first stage of the operation in general have been completed”
Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu has reported on the course of the special military operation in Ukraine. It will continue until the goals set are achieved, he has said.
“The main tasks of the first stage of the operation in general have been completed. The combat potential of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has significantly decreased, which allows paying attention and focusing the main efforts to achieve the main goal — to liberate Donbas,” Shoigu has claimed.
The Defence Ministry claimed the main tasks of the first stage of the special military operation Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on 24 February were completed as early as last week. Head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Sergey Rudskoy also said that the combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was significantly decreased.
Hundreds of fled and killed mercenaries
Shoigu has also talked about the escape and murder of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine. Their number is measured in hundreds.
“In the last two weeks, more than 500 mercenaries have fled the country, about 600 have been killed,” the Russian defence minister has informed the audience.
Shoigu has noted that the number of contractors in Ukraine is reducing as a result of strikes launched with high-precision weapons against their training centres. The Russian Ministry of Defence has repeatedly reported on this.
Particularly on 21 March night, the Armed Forces of Russia launched a cruise missile attack on a training centre for foreign mercenaries and Ukrainian nationalist units on the combined arms training ground Nova Lyubomirka, Rovna Oblast, with high-precision air missiles. As a result, more than 80 mercenaries and nationalists were killed.
At this moment, there taken purposeful actions to track and kill foreign mercenaries in Ukraine, has added Shoigu.
“The West’s irresponsible stance”
Shoigu has paid attention to the uncontrolled distribution of weapons to ordinary citizens and mercenaries in Ukraine. According to him, this “worsens the situation and can in the future create a threat for Europeans themselves,” writes TASS.
“We think the stance of the West supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine irresponsible,” has indicated Shoigu.
The Russian defence minister has also stressed that cases of the thoughtless use of some arms by the Ukrainian army are registered too. For instance, “a real threat to civil shipping is created in the Black Sea,” two naval mines were detected near Romania’s coasts and the Bosporus, Turkish militaries managed to defuse it.
“Hotspots” not for conscripts
The Russian defence minister has also hurried to assure the audience that conscripts aren’t planned to be sent to “hotspots.” It should be reminded that the fact that conscripts were involved in the special operation in Ukraine came out in early March, after that, the country’s President Vladimir Putin ordered to launch an investigation and find the perpetrators.
“I will emphasise that conscripts will not be sent to any hotspots,” has claimed Shoigu.
The militaries who were conscripted in the spring of 2021 will retire from active service, they will go home, has said Shoigu. This spring, most conscripts’ military service will start with training. It will last from three to five months.