Putin: West failed against Russia in Ukraine

Head of the Kremlin - Putin: West failed against Russia in Ukraine

Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin believes that the West has failed in its attempts to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia in Ukraine. The goal had been shattered by the "growing strength of our armed forces and arms production", Putin said on Tuesday in Moscow at a meeting of the Ministry of Defense in front of military and representatives from politics, church and society. In the war against Ukraine, "we can say with conviction that the initiative lies with our armed forces", said the Russian president.

Putin had ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022; many states then sided with the attacked country and supplied it with weapons. The Ukrainian counter-offensive launched in the summer of 2023 to liberate its territories from Russian occupation fell short of the expectations of politicians and civil society. Foreign experts such as the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in the USA have recently observed that Russia is gaining ground with its advances.

Putin has recently repeatedly declared the Ukrainian armed forces ' counter-offensive a failure. "The enemy is suffering heavy losses and has depleted its reserves to a significant extent," said the 71-year-old. "The myth of the invulnerability of Western military technology has also collapsed." In a minute's silence, Putin paid tribute to the Russian soldiers killed in the fighting. He did not give any figures on the losses.

Putin: Problems in the Russian defense

Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at the meeting that Ukraine had now lost 383,000 soldiers through death or injury in the war. Ukraine, on the other hand, currently puts the number of losses in the Russian ranks at 348,000 soldiers. This information cannot be verified. Neither of the warring parties has released official figures on their own losses.

Shoigu also said that the number of volunteers should increase by more than 250,000 to around 745,000 contract soldiers in the coming year. The Russians will continue to be lured into military service with a comparatively high salary of around 2,000 euros per month. "The primary goal for the coming year is to continue the special military operation until all set tasks have been completed," said Minister Shoigu. According to earlier statements, the tasks include, above all, complete control over the previously partially occupied regions of Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporizhia - and the demilitarization of Ukraine.

Putin once again accused the USA of having driven the conflict in Ukraine to war. He claimed that the West had only ever been interested in using the country as an instrument to destroy Russia. The USA had "achieved its goal" of dividing Russia and the EU on the European continent. The Kremlin leader also criticized NATO's growing activity on Russia's borders - for example in Finland, which only became a member of the military alliance in the wake of Putin's war.

Putin also publicly stated that the war against Ukraine had highlighted problems in Russia's defense. Russia needed more drones, better air defense and a modern satellite communication system. At the same time, he praised the modernization of the nuclear power's strategic weapons. For example, four Tu-160M long-range bombers and four nuclear submarines had been put into operation. By the end of the year, 15 new launch complexes for the Jars and Avantgard intercontinental missiles should be ready for use.

Immediately before Putin's appearance, the Russian air defense system shot down a Ukrainian drone in the Moscow region, according to the Ministry of Defense. Moscow's mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that there were no injuries or damage. According to the state news agency Ria Novosti, Vnukovo International Airport reported restrictions on take-offs and landings in the wake of the drone attack at around midday.

There were also reports on social networks that air traffic was also restricted at the capital's Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports. A short time later, traffic was back to normal. Previously, Russian air defense had also reported the shooting down of drones in the Bryansk and Kaluga regions.

In Kiev, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued an invitation to an annual press conference in the late afternoon under the strictest security precautions. Zelensky was also expected to comment on the course of the war and the goals for 2024. He had already announced in advance that the country's air defense would be strengthened. According to the Ukrainian air defense, two Russian drones were shot down on Tuesday.