Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that peace with Ukraine will only happen when Russia meets its goals.
The president made these statements when answering questions from journalists and Russian citizens in his first press conference since the start of the large scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A good portion of the 4-hour-long, largely choreographed event focused on what he calls the “special military operation in Ukraine” and insisted that the situation was improving across the battlefront.
The “Hot Line” program, televised by most major Russian channels, began with Putin telling Russians: “The existence of our country without sovereignty is impossible. “It simply won’t exist.”
He added that Russia’s economy is strong for a time of war and quickly moved on to talk about Ukraine.
“617,000 Russians fighting in Ukraine”
“There will be peace [en Ucrania] when we achieve our goals,” Putin said in his speech. Those “objectives do not change,” he stated, and listed them: “Denazification, demilitarization and its neutral status.”
These are issues that have been highlighted since the beginning of the war.
At one point he stated that Russia has 617,000 soldiers fighting in Ukraine and added that, in addition to the 300,000 people called to serve last year, others 486,000 voluntarily enlisted as professional contract soldiers.
“The flow of men who are willing to defend the interests of the country with weapons in hand does not decrease,” he said.
“In total there will be just under half a million men by the end of this year. Why do we need a mobilization?”
He did not give figures for military losses, but revealed that children of people within his inner circle fought for private military companies, and that several people close to him died.
A classified US intelligence report this week estimated that 315,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded since the war began, which represents almost 90% of Russia’s military personnel at the beginning of the invasion.
Aside from spontaneous questions posed to Putin by Russian and foreign journalists, ordinary Russian citizens sent two million questions to the event that were carefully vetted beforehand, the government reported.
A war reporter for the Russian newspaper Izvestia stationed in occupied Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, he asked Putin about Ukraine’s recent presence on the Russian-occupied eastern bank of the Dnieper River.
Putin described Ukraine’s military success in a “small area” as a last attempt by the Ukrainians to penetrate Crimea, and said that Russian forces decided to retreat several meters into forested areas to save their people.
He went on to suggest that Kyiv wants to show the West that it needs more military financing.
“I don’t know why they do it, they are pressuring their people to die, it is a one-way trip for the Ukrainian forces. The reasons for this are political, because Ukrainian leaders are begging for help from foreign countries,” said the Russian president.
Putin also maintained that support for Ukraine from his allies was drying up.
“Today Ukraine produces almost nothing,” he said. “Excuse my vulgarity, but everything is brought as a freebie. But those freebies could run out at some point. AND they seem to be gradually running out“he continued saying.
Putin claimed that Russian forces had the advantage on the front lines in Ukraine.
“Practically along the entire front our armed forces are improving their situation, to put it modestly,” he said in his marathon press conference.
There has been very little movement on the front lines in recent months, but Russia is targeting two cities in the eastern Donetsk region: Márinka and Avdivka.
Putin insisted that Russia could “move forward” despite Western economic sanctions and political isolation stemming from its invasion of Ukraine.
As the Russian leader spoke, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gave a press conference at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels in which he warned: “If Putin wins in Ukraine, there is a real risk that his aggression will not end there”.
Americans held in Russian prisons
Putin also spoke about Russia’s relations with the United States.
He described the US as an important country but classified it as imperialist. She urged Washington to “respect other people and countries” and said Russia was willing to reset relations once this happened.
The correspondent of The New York TimesValerie Hopkins, asked the Russian leader what it would take for Russia to release two American citizens held in Russian prisons: the highly respected correspondent of The Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovichand the ex-marine Paul Whelan.
The US believes that both men were unjustly detained; Gershkovich’s detention was extended this Thursday until January 30.
Gershkovich was arrested while working for the newspaper in the city of Yekaterinburg and was accused of espionage, something he and his colleagues firmly deny.
“As for a possible exchange (…) we want to reach an agreement, and that agreement must be mutually acceptable and convenient,” Putin responded, noting that the men were subject to a court order.
“A dialogue is taking place on this issue. It’s a difficult dialogue and I won’t go into the details now, but I think overall we’re talking in a language we both understand. I hope we find a solution,” she indicated.
At one point, Putin seemed to confirm that opposition figures were being persecuted in Russia.
When asked by a journalist whether the penal code could be changed to prevent a “witch hunt” against journalists, including a pro-Kremlin colleague, Putin said: “What did she do to be hunted? What is she, a big opposition figure or something?”
Russia’s leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny faces 19 years in prison and his team says they have not had access to him for more than a week.
Other Putin talking points
- The Russian leader reacted to the decision to allow Russian athletes to participate in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as long as they compete without flags, emblems or anthems of their country.
- He said he supported Russian athletes competing, but that the country should reflect on whether it should participate if the event is designed to present Russian sport as “moribund.”
- He also spoke about the situation in Loop and described it as a “catastrophe” unfolding on a scale “not at all like” Ukraine.
- Refering to artificial intelligence (AI), Putin, responding to an AI-generated double of himself, said Russia should become a world leader in this matter.
- In addition, he once again blamed the US for the explosions that destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022, without offering any proof.
Additional reporting by Sandro Vetsko.
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