Russian official wants to use dogs as suicide bombers in Ukraine

To treat the homeless animal problem in Russia, Viktor Makarov, deputy for the Communist Party in Oryol, suggested using homeless dogs as suicide bombers to "blow up tanks" in Ukraine, Newsweek reports citing the Orel Times.

The option was mentioned at a recent session of the Legislative Assembly where Makarov previously suggested that the dogs be sent to China. Makarov's comments caught the attention of Kevin Rothrock, the managing editor at Meduza, who took to Twitter on Saturday.

"A Communist deputy in Russia's Oryol region wants to train stray dogs to run at Ukrainian tanks as suicide bombers," Rothrock wrote.

However, neither of Makarov's suggestions appealed to his colleagues as they had many logistical questions, the newspaper reported. Oleg Koshelev, deputy speaker of the regional parliament, asked about the chances of sterilized dogs not biting people. Meanwhile, Deputy Andrei Frolov also asked about the financial cost of keeping one homeless animal per day. After the discussion and lack of answers, the proposed law did not get adopted.

Mark Hertling, former commanding general of the United States Army Europe, also took to Twitter on Saturday and questioned the Russian official's proposed plan.

"Don't know why they see the need to train dogs to do this...they currently are asking RU soldiers to do the same," Hertling tweeted.

Rajan Menon, director of the Grand Strategy program at Defense Priorities, told Newsweek on Saturday that "this may be further evidence that the Russians are pulling out all the stops to prevail" in its ongoing war with Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the latest report from the Institute of the Study of War (ISW) suggests that Russia is attempting to capitalize on the West's desire to negotiate.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin held an hour-long telephone conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on December 2 in which Putin falsely stated that Western financial and military aid to Ukraine creates a situation in which the Ukrainian government outright rejects talks between Moscow and Kyiv and called upon Scholz to reconsider Germany's approach regarding developments in Ukraine," the U.S.-based think tank said Friday.

Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also said while President Joe Biden seems to be demanding the removal of Russian forces from Ukraine as a precondition for negotiations, the "special military operation" would continue.

The ISW concluded that Putin is not interested in seriously negotiating with Ukraine and retains maximalist objectives for the war.

Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of Defense, said as Ukraine heads into winter and Russia's position on the battlefield erodes, the Russian leader may resort to "profoundly irresponsible nuclear saber-rattling."

On Wednesday, Russia announced plans to ramp up defense spending, according to the country's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The amount of funding for Russia's defense "taking into account the additional allocated budget funds" in 2023 will increase by almost one and a half times, the defense minister said.