MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) - Further activity on the part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces should now be expected, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
"Given that they had no success, there is no decision on aid [from the West] so far. It will probably be made someday. Further activity [of the Ukrainian Armed Forces] should probably be expected now," Shoigu said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Western countries considered providing aid to Ukraine last year, he said. "They [the Ukrainian Armed Forces] started very active operations specifically here in the Kherson sector at the end of last year. According to all intercepted radio traffic and information, they needed to show at least some success to their sponsors," he said.
"They created some headquarters abroad, beyond the borders of Ukraine, to actually plan all these operations," Putin said.
"It's not even external control. It's simply control over all forces. There are instructors everywhere. I think it's a feat for them if anyone among them expresses some objections to their curators and instructors. Everything that was planned in terms of a large-scale offensive last year was planned by the United States and NATO instructors," Shoigu said.
"Of course, this defeat was a serious shock for them, because the methods, technologies, [and] approaches they perhaps practiced and tried to use here ended in complete failure," he said.