Russian official suggests using dogs as suicide bombers in Ukraine

To solve Russia’s issue of homeless animals, the deputy for the Communist Party in Oryol, Viktor Makarov, suggested that homeless dogs can be used as suicide bombers to "blow up tanks" in Ukraine, reported the Orel Times on Friday. The suggestion was given in the Legislative Assembly’s recent session where previously Makarov had suggested that the dogs can be sent to China.

The comments of Makarov caught the attention of Meduza’s managing editor Kevin Rothrock, who on Saturday tweeted, "A Communist deputy in Russia's Oryol region wants to train stray dogs to run at Ukrainian tanks as suicide bombers.”

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However, Newsweek reported that the suggestions given by Makarov failed to appeal to his colleagues as they didn’t get satisfactory answers to their logistical questions.

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The regional parliament’s deputy speaker Oleg Koshelev asked what were the chances of people not getting bitten by sterilised dogs. Deputy Andrei Frolov, meanwhile, quizzed about the financial cost of keeping one animal per day. Due to the lack of answers, the regional parliament failed to adopt the proposed law. The United States Army Europe’s former commanding general Mark Hertling took to Twitter on Saturday and criticised the proposed plan of the Russian official.

"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 said in his tweet.

On Saturday, the Grand Strategy programme at Defence Priorities programme Rajan Menonsaid that "this may be further evidence that the Russians are pulling out all the stops to prevail" in Ukraine’s ongoing war.

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The Institute of the Study of War’s (ISW) latest report said that attempts are being made by Russia to capitalise on the desire of the West 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," stated the US-based think tank on Friday.