Chechen leader predicts end of Ukraine conflict

In a televised interview on December 13 (local time), Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov predicted that the conflict in Ukraine could end in the spring or summer of 2024, as Kiev is running out of all the necessary resources.

According to RT, soldiers from Chechnya have played a major role in the conflict with Ukraine, and the head of the republic in the southern part of the Russian Federation is paying close attention to developments on the front line. He predicts that the lack of manpower, weapons and money will completely erode Kiev's military capabilities by June or July next year at the latest.

Speaking in Chechen, he said Russia could crush Ukraine within three months if it were prepared to fight the way Israel is waging war in Gaza right now.

“President Vladimir Putin ordered us to keep the infrastructure and cities as intact as possible, otherwise we would have taken Kiev. We were 7 kilometers away. But the president has no interest in destroying the Ukrainian state,” Russian media quoted Mr. Kadyrov as saying.

RT also said that Russian troops approached the Ukrainian capital in the early stages of the conflict. However, the country's Defense Ministry announced the withdrawal after a breakthrough in Turkish-brokered peace talks in Istanbul in March 2022, where delegations signed a draft ceasefire.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky later abandoned the talks, declaring that they were no longer possible due to the discovery of evidence of war crimes in the town of Bucha. Moscow has categorically denied the allegations and called Kiev's statement a pretext for continuing hostilities.

The Russian news agency claimed that then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had sabotaged the fledgling peace deal by telling the Ukrainian government that Western nations would not endorse it. Johnson’s role was recently confirmed by Ukrainian MP David Arakhamia, who heads the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul. The lawmaker revealed in an interview that Johnson had told Kiev to “go to war.”

Kiev and its foreign backers had hoped for battlefield success in a counteroffensive this year that saw the Ukrainian army supplied with Western-made heavy weapons, including main battle tanks. The six-month effort has failed to produce any major territorial gains and has come at a heavy cost to Ukraine, with the Russian military estimating its opponents’ losses at more than 125,000.

Kiev's ability to secure continued Western aid is also now in doubt, as opposition to the spending grows in both the US and Europe.