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Britain’s defense minister: "Russia is in very fragile position"

24 August 2022 13:55 (UTC +04:00)

Britain’s defence minister Ben Wallace said today that Russia is in a “very fragile” position, APA reports citing BBC.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

"I spoke to my intelligence chiefs this morning before coming on, you know, Russia’s advance can be measured in metres per week, not miles.

It is grinding in small parts of the country in an attempt to advance – completely opposite of the three-days special operation that it touted at the beginning of this, six months ago.

We pretty much accept, well, we do accept, the sort of observations of Russian losses to be – if you combine deaths, injuries, desertions – over 80,000 of their armed forces. That’s 80,000 in six months compared with 15,000 they lost in a decade in Afghanistan.

I think we are in a position where Russia is in a very fragile position."

On whether Ukraine is realistically in a position to retake the territory that Russia still holds, Mr Wallace said:

"I think Ukraine is getting itself into that position.

First and foremost, Ukraine already has had throughout this the moral component, as we call it in defence, and if you look at the morale of the Ukrainian forces, it is, you know, it is leagues ahead of the Russian morale, you know, which is poorly-trained troops, etc."