Russia has claimed that NATO is planning to deploy 100,000 peacekeepers in Ukraine as part of its plan to prepare Kyiv for “revenge.”
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) believes several NATO countries will “occupy Ukraine under the guise of deploying a ‘peacekeeping contingent’ in the country,” it said in a press release on Friday.
No evidence has been provided for this claim and earlier this year, then-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance had “no intention of deploying forces in Ukraine.”
Newsweek has contacted NATO via online contact form and the Russian defense ministry via email for comment.
The SVR said NATO wants to “freeze” the conflict in Ukraine amid the “conditions of the obvious lack of prospects for inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield.”
It believes that NATO countries want to train at least a million mobilized Ukrainians and “restore the Ukrainian military-industrial complex.”
“The West considers the implementation of such a scenario as an opportunity to restore the combat capability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and thoroughly prepare Kyiv for an attempt at revenge,” the SVR said in the release.
“NATO headquarters understands that without providing the Ukrainian Armed Forces with sufficient weapons and ammunition, the expectation that the Ukrainians will be able to conduct high-intensity combat operations over a long period of time is unrealistic,” it continued.
The organization argued that the plan to “occupy” Ukraine would be the West’s way of “solving these problems.”
It came as Russian casualties hit more than 2,000 troops in a single day, Ukraine’s defense ministry said Friday morning—breaking a bleak record set only weeks ago.
A post from the ministry on X, formerly Twitter, said that Moscow’s forces suffered 2,030 personnel losses between November 28 and 29, the first time it has reported more than 2,000 in a single day.
Russia does not publicize its military losses and analysts are skeptical of casualty reports from both sides.
The previous highest daily casualty count was on November 11, when Russia lost 1,950 troops, Ukraine reported. This came only one day after Kyiv said 1,770 troops had been lost in a day by Moscow, for a total of 3,720 casualties sustained over the two days, breaking grim records two days in a row.
If Ukraine’s latest figures are accurate, this would bring Russia’s total number of casualties since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 to 738,660.
Ukraine also reported that the latest losses bring Russia’s casualty total this month to 42,250, making November the deadliest month for the country’s troops since the full-scale invasion began.
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