War in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin recognizes that the conflict is “long”


Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged on Wednesday that the conflict in Ukraine was “long”, while boasting “significant results” in reference to the annexation he claims of four Ukrainian regions. “Of course, it’s a long process,” Vladimir Putin said during a televised meeting with his Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, a pro-Kremlin assembly.

The offensive launched in February was supposed to end in a lightning Russian victory, but the Ukrainian army, galvanized by Western weapons, forced Russia to give up in the spring to take kyiv, then in the fall to fall back in several other regions.

The Russian army retreated to Kherson

Responding to one of his interlocutors, Vladimir Putin noted on Wednesday that “the appearance of new territories” was a “significant result for Russia”. “The Sea of ​​Azov has become an inland sea, this is a serious thing”, he proclaimed, referring to this sea bordering Russia and the south-east of Ukraine, of which Moscow now controls all the shore.

President Putin also referred to the four Ukrainian regions which he claimed to be annexed at the end of September, although Russia only partially controls them and fighting is raging there with the forces of kyiv. This month, the Russian army even had to retreat from Kherson, the capital of the eponymous region that Moscow nevertheless considers its own.

77,000 reservists deployed in combat

The Kremlin had always denied that its offensive against Ukraine was intended to conquer new territories, claiming to want to defend the Russian-speaking populations and end the alliance between kyiv and the West. A few minutes earlier, during this same meeting by videoconference, Vladimir Putin returned to the mobilization of 300,000 civilian reservists, therefore, noting that only half were immediately deployed in Ukraine.

“Of 300,000 of our mobilized fighters, our men, our defenders of the Fatherland, 150,000 are in the area of ​​operation,” said the Russian leader, adding that 77,000 are deployed directly in combat. The other 150,000 are still in training in Russia. After a series of setbacks, the Kremlin went back on its initial promises and decreed on September 21 the mobilization of these reservists to send them to the front. Vladimir Putin once again promised on Wednesday that there would be no second wave of mobilization.



Source link -75