Vladimir Putin recognizes a “long” conflict
Vladimir Putin acknowledged on Wednesday that the conflict in Ukraine is « long »while boasting of “significant results” in reference to the annexation, which he claims, of four Ukrainian regions. “Of course, it’s a long process”said the Russian president 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 in the spring to give up taking kyiv, then in the fall to fall back in several other regions. Responding to one of his interlocutors, Vladimir Putin noted on Wednesday that the annexation of new territories was a “significant result for Russia”.
“The Sea of Azov has become an inland sea, it’s a serious thing”, he proclaimed, in reference to this sea bordering Russia and the south-east of Ukraine, of which Moscow now controls all the shores. President Putin also alluded 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 withdraw from Kherson, the capital of the region of the same name, which Moscow nevertheless considers its own.
The Kremlin has always denied that its offensive against Ukraine is 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, Mr. Putin returned to the mobilization of 300,000 reservists, civilians, noting that only half were immediately deployed in Ukraine. “Out of 300,000 of our mobilized fighters, our men, our defenders of the homeland, 150,000 are in the area of operation”said the Russian leader, specifying that 77,000 are deployed directly in combat.