Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the Kremlin’s military offensive in Ukraine and assured that Russian forces are advancing calmly. The president also specified that the “fundamental objective” of Moscow is the Ukrainian east where he affirms that he wants to “help the people in Donbass”. kyiv reported the arrest of a Ukrainian businessman close to the Russian head of state and that he had fled after the Russian invasion.
Russia’s goals
Putin traveled to the Vostochny space station, in the east of the Russian Federation, where he met with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko. From the cosmodrome, the Russian leader outlined the next steps in the war in Ukraine. “Our mission is to meet the objectives set while minimizing losses, we are going to act harmoniously, calmly, in accordance with the plan proposed from the beginning by the General Staff,” Putin said at a news conference with Lukashenko.
The Russian head of state downplayed information indicating that Moscow forces are having difficulties in their clashes with Ukrainian forces and that the Kremlin decided to focus on the Donbass because it failed to take control of large urban centers like kyiv. A week ago the Kremlin troops left the Ukrainian capital and its surroundings to develop a strategy towards the east of the former Soviet republic.
“Our actions in certain regions of Ukraine were only aimed at pinning (Ukrainian) forces away from Donbass, striking a blow and destroying the military infrastructure”Putin indicated that in addition He specified that the Russian forces do not advance faster to avoid heavy losses.
“I often hear the question, can you go faster? Yes, it is possible, but this implies intensifying military operations, which unfortunately would have had an effect on losses,” he explained.
“Brother Town”
Putin also assured that the so-called Russian military operation was carried out to help the Russophone population to the east of Ukraine. “The fundamental goal is to help the people in Donbass, the people of Donbass that we have recognized. We have been forced to do it because the authorities in kyiv, pushed by the West, refused to comply with the Minsk Agreements aimed at a peaceful solution of the problems of Donbass,” said the Russian president in Vostochny, where he also celebrated the International Day of Cosmonautics and Aviation 61 years after the Russian Yuri Gagarin made the first trip to space.
The peace agreements signed in Minsk in 2014 and 2015 they established a commitment from kyiv to give a certain degree of regional autonomy to the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk. This involved the official teaching of the Russian language, as well as the election of local authorities. According to Putin, these points were not fulfilled by the Ukrainian side.
“They had begun to turn Ukraine into an outpost against Russia, they had begun to cultivate the germs of nationalism and neo-Nazism who had been there for a long time (…) It was inevitable that these forces would confront Russia, they did nothing more than choose the moment of attack,” said the Russian leader.
In turn, the Russian president assured that he considers the Ukrainians as a brother people for the Russians. At the press conference Putin was consulted about the alleged massacre of civilians in the city of Bucha that Western countries attribute to the Kremlin troops, the Russian leader He denied having killed civilians and assured that Ukraine uses the population as a human shield. In this sense, he compared these accusations with those made against the Bashar al Assad regime in Syria for the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Syrian war. “We have the same false information in Bucha,” he said.
The Russian president also expressed himself about the Ukrainian negotiators whom he pointed out for their “lack of coherence” that put a brake on the agreements between the parties“I was informed last night that the Ukrainian side had again changed something… Such a lack of consistency on fundamental points creates difficulties,” he said. According to the Kremlin, until an agreement is reached, “the military operation will continue to fully complete its mission,” he added.
Capture of Ukrainian businessman
On the other hand, the kyiv authorities reported the capture of the Ukrainian deputy and businessman Viktor Medvedchuk, a confidant of Putin and who had fled since the beginning of the invasion. This Tuesday Medvedchuk was captured.
“A special operation was carried out thanks to the SBU (Ukrainian security services). Bravo!” said the President of Ukraine Volodimir Zelensky via Telegram. The Ukrainian leader published a photo where the businessman is seen detained, handcuffed and dressed in the military uniform of the former Soviet republic.
“You can be a pro-Russian politician and work for the aggressor state for years. You can run away. You can even wear a Ukrainian uniform to go unnoticed. But will that help you escape punishment? Not at all,” Ukrainian security services confirmed on Telegram. .
Medvedchuk, 67, had been under house arrest since 2021 on charges of high treason and attempting to plunder Crimean natural resources. Two days after the Russian invasion, the police revealed that the businessman had fled. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, indicated that the veracity of the photograph published by Zelensky must be verified.