Addressing the war in public for the first time since Russian forces withdrew from northern Ukraine after stopping at the gates of Kiev, Putin promised that Russia would achieve all its “noble” goals in Ukraine.
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In the strongest message to date that the war will continue for longer, Putin said Kyiv had derailed peace talks with what he said were false allegations of Russian war crimes and security guarantees to cover the whole of Ukraine. The story goes on under the ad “We are back in a hopeless situation again,” Putin, Russia’s top leader since 1999, told a news conference during a visit to the Vostochny spaceport 5,550 kilometers east of Moscow. Asked by Russian space agency staff whether the operation in Ukraine would achieve its goals, Putin said: “Absolutely. I have absolutely no doubt. “ 2:14 “Huge suffering”: Exhausted Ukrainians fear possible new Russian attack “Huge suffering”: Exhausted Ukrainians fear possible new Russian attack Russia, he said, will continue to operate “rhythmically and calmly.” Putin said Russia had no choice but to fight because it had to defend Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine and prevent its former Soviet neighbor from becoming an anti-Russian springboard for Moscow’s enemies. The West has condemned the war as a brutal imperial-style seizure aimed at a sovereign country. Ukraine says it is fighting for its survival after Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and on February 21 recognized two of its guerrilla areas as sovereign. The story goes on under the ad Putin rejected Western sanctions, which led Russia to its worst economic contraction in years since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, as a failure. Trending Stories
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“This Blitzkrieg on which our enemies relied did not work,” Putin said.
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Putin, who was ubiquitous on Russian television in the early days of the war, was largely withdrawn from public view after Russia withdrew from northern Ukraine two weeks ago. His only public appearance last week was at the funeral of a nationalist lawmaker, where he did not mention the war directly. On Monday, he met the visiting Austrian chancellor at a holiday home outside Moscow, but no pictures of the meeting were released. Putin has denied allegations by Ukraine and the West that Russia committed war crimes as counterfeit. The story goes on under the ad Ever since Russian troops withdrew from towns and villages around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have been showing reporters the bodies of civilians killed by Russian forces, damaged homes and burned cars. Reuters saw bodies in the city of Bucha, but could not independently determine who was responsible for the killings. Ukraine says Russia is guilty of genocide and US President Joe Biden has accused Putin of war crimes and called for a trial. Putin said he had told Western leaders to think a little about the United States’ destruction of the Syrian city of Raqqa, the former de facto capital of the Islamic State caliphate, and Afghanistan. “Have you seen how this Syrian city was reduced to rubble by American aircraft?” “The bodies were in the rubble for months and decomposed,” Putin said. “No one cared. “Nobody even noticed.” “There was no such silence when there were provocations in Syria, when they portrayed the use of chemical weapons by the Assad government. Then it turned out to be fake. It’s the same kind of fake in Bouha. “ Putin, who says Ukraine and Russia are essentially one people, sees the war as an inevitable confrontation with the United States, which he accuses of threatening Russia with meddling in its own backyard. The story goes on under the ad Sixty-one years after Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union made history by becoming the first man in space, Putin has made an analogy between Soviet space success and Russia’s defiance today. “The sanctions were complete, the isolation was complete, but the Soviet Union was still first in space,” said Putin, 69, recalling his own question as a student who learned of the achievement. “We do not intend to isolate ourselves,” Putin said. “It is impossible to seriously isolate anyone in the modern world – especially such a huge country as Russia.” (Written by Guy Faulconbridge · Edited by Peter Graff, Tomasz Janowski and Gareth Jones)
