At a press conference held at the end of an international summit in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, Russian President Putin claimed that he does not regret the invasion of Ukraine. Putin’s forces continue to shuffle along the front line, mainly in Kherson. On the eastern front, some progress of the Russian army was reported
Russia is paying a high price in blood when thousands of its soldiers were killed in the war against Ukraine, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has no regrets. At a press conference he held this weekend at the end of an international summit in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, Putin claimed that he does not regret the invasion. “I want to be clear – what is happening today is unpleasant, to say the least, but we would have received the same thing later, only in worse conditions for us, that’s all. That’s why we acted correctly and at the right time.”
Putin returned and said that he was ready to return to the negotiating table, but warned the West against more blatant intervention in the war in favor of the government in Kiev – and according to him, a direct confrontation between NATO forces and Russia’s forces would result in a “global catastrophe”.
In addition, the Russian president clarified that his goal is not the “destruction” of Ukraine and declared that “for now” there is no need for further “massive attacks” on Ukraine. He said this in reference to the extensive missile attack he launched last Monday as revenge for the explosion at the Crimean bridge. He explained his last statement by saying that most of the pre-selected attack targets had already been hit.
At the press conference, Putin also referred to the extensive reserve mobilization that he announced last month in the shadow of the defeats suffered by his army in Ukraine. “The length of the contact line (on the front) is 1,100 kilometers, and it was no longer possible to guard it only with soldiers under contract,” Putin said. Against the background of reports that many of the enlisted soldiers are sent to the front without adequate training or equipment, and that at least seven of them were killed within a few days of being sent there, Putin added that every soldier needs to undergo training – but noted that sometimes this training can be completed in only ten days.
Putin stressed that no additional reserve mobilization is expected, for now it seems that Putin’s forces continue to shuffle along the front line, especially in the Kherson district in the south of the country where the Ukrainian army is conducting a counter-attack. According to Ukrainian officials, the attack has so far liberated 75 settlements and villages. The Russian government appointed in Kherson – one of the four partially occupied districts that Putin annexed from Ukraine last month – announced its intention to evacuate civilians due to alleged repeated shelling by the Ukrainians.
It was reported in the Russian media over the past weekend that some of the evacuees have already arrived in the districts within Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which was already annexed in 2014 and lies south of Kherson. Despite the evacuation, the pro-Russian Deputy Prime Minister Kherson claimed that it was not a real retreat. “No one is retreating, no one is planning to leave the territory of the Kherson region,” said Kirill Stramosov. On the other hand, on the eastern front, the news agency reported some progress by the Russian army.
British intelligence reported in its daily assessment of the situation that the Russians have recorded “tactical” successes in the Donbass region in the last three days, and are approaching the strategic town of Hamut in the Donetsk region – which they have been trying to capture from the hands of the Ukrainians for weeks, Britain emphasized that this is “very slow” progress. And as part of it, the Russians captured two villages south of Behemoth.