During a press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an incorrect number of troops fighting against Ukraine. He mentioned 617,000, but according to Ukrainian intelligence, the "real number" is about 450,000, Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Ukrainian military intelligence, has told the news telethon, Radio Liberty reports.
"The enemy provides distorted data to put information pressure on Ukraine, continue to frighten other countries and 'motivate' Russians... This is not the only lie that came out of the Russian dictator's mouth yesterday. Basically, every time he opened his mouth there, he lied. But at the same time, the Russian dictator yesterday confessed to a number of war crimes and said that he intends to continue them," Yusov said.
He noted that about 450,000 troops are currently fighting against Ukraine.
"This is not the figure that was announced yesterday by a person like Putin. Unless he counted all the eliminated invaders who were not taken away from the battlefield by the ruscists. In this vein, a different figure could have come out. In general, this is propaganda," Yusov added.
On 14 December, Putin held a phone-in during which he stated that 617,000 Russian troops were allegedly at war in Ukraine. He also claimed that in addition to 300,000 conscripts, 486,000 "volunteers" had been recruited to fight against Ukraine.