Russian President Vladimir Putin assured this Friday that Ukraine “did not achieve anything” during its “great counteroffensive,” which began last summer, and that Russian troops “improve their positions” in the forehead.
“The enemy announced a major counteroffensive. “He didn’t achieve anything anywhere,” he said in his year-end press conference.
The last Ukrainian operation within the framework of the counteroffensive was the “landing attempt” on the left bank of the Dnieper, Putin noted.
“I don’t even know why they do it. They send their people to extermination. The Ukrainian military themselves recognize that it is a one-way path,” he indicated.
The Ukrainian soldiers who managed to cross the river are now surrounded, he said, calling the decision of the Ukrainian authorities to send them there “irresponsible.”
“I’ll be honest, it’s in our best interest for them to send their military personnel there. Unfortunately, the logic of armed struggles is like this,” he noted.
The situation in Gaza is a “catastrophe” but denies resemblance to Ukraine
The head of the Kremlin revealed that currently the grouping of Russian troops in Ukraine is made up of 617,000 soldiers, who have managed to improve their positions “along almost the entire front line”, which is now “more than 2,000 kilometers”.
According to the Kremlin’s number one, “what is happening (in Ukraine) is an enormous tragedy, similar to a civil war” and he has accused the West of provoking it by its approach to the Russian borders.
“The uncontrollable desire to creep towards our borders, trapping Ukraine in NATO, led to this tragedy,” he insisted.
For Putin, the current situation in the Gaza Strip is also a “catastrophe” but he has denied that the level of destruction there has any similarity to what is happening in Ukraine.
Relations with the US and the EU
Regarding relations with the West, the Russian president has assured that Russia will restore its relations with the United States and the European Union (EU) when they “learn to respect other countries” and when they choose to seek compromises instead of sanctions.
In his opinion, “these conditions are not yet in place, but we are ready for it.”
Putin recalled that for decades, Russia strove to “establish normal relations with Ukraine,” but it was precisely the West that pushed Kiev to the 2014 “coup d’état.”
He accused the US of having spent more than $5 billion to destabilize Ukraine and the EU of turning a blind eye to this situation and listening to Washington.
This year the Kremlin decided to combine the press conference with its question-and-answer session with citizens, which used to be held in the first and second half of each year, respectively.
It is Putin’s first major press conference since the start of the war, which this year the Kremlin combined with the president’s hotline in which Putin answers questions from his fellow citizens.
By TTU
