MOSCOW (AP) — With Russia’s military action in Ukraine in its fifth month, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned Kyiv that it should quickly accept Moscow’s terms or brace for the worst, adding ominously that Russia has barely started its action.
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Speaking at a meeting with leaders of the Kremlin-controlled parliament, Putin accused Western allies of fueling the hostilities, charging that “the West wants to fight us until the last Ukrainian.”
“It’s a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it looks like it’s heading in that direction,” he added.
“Everybody should know that largely speaking, we haven’t even yet started anything in earnest,” Putin said in a menacing note.
He declared that Russia remains ready to sit down for talks to end the fighting, adding that “those who refuse to do so should know that the longer it lasts the more difficult it will be for them to make a deal with us.”
“We are hearing that they want to defeat us on the battlefield,” Putin said. “Let them try.”
Earlier in the conflict, the Kremlin demanded that Kyiv acknowledge Russian sovereignty over the Crimea peninsula it annexed from Ukraine in 2014 and recognize the independence of Moscow-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine. Moscow also said it expected Ukraine to bow to the existing situation on the ground, a reference to other land gains it has made since the Russian troops rolled into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
After failing to capture Kyiv and other big cities in Ukraine’s northeast early in the campaign, the Russian military shifted its focus to Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian troops since 2014.
Earlier this week, the Russian military claimed control of the Luhansk province, one of the two regions that make up Donbas, and is preparing to press its offensive into the second one, the Donetsk region.
In the early stages of the conflict, Russia won control of the southern Kherson region and part of neighboring Zaporizhzhia. Moscow is expected to try to eventually cut Ukraine off from its Black Sea coast all the way to the Romanian border. If that succeeded, it would deal a crushing blow to the Ukrainian economy and also create a corridor to Moldova’s separatist region of Transnistria that hosts a Russian military base.
Putin reaffirmed his long-held claim that the West using the conflict in Ukraine to try to isolate and weaken Russia.
“They simply don’t need such a country as Russia,” Putin said. “This is why they have used terrorism, separatism and internal destructive forces in our country.”
He charged that Western sanctions against Russia have failed to achieve their goal of “sowing division and strife in our society and demoralizing our people.”
“The course of history is unstoppable, and attempts by the collective West to enforce its version of the global order are doomed to fail,” Putin said.
Whether you like it or not, Russia is winning. The West’s response has only backfired and made Western economies weaker. And even $54,000,000,000 later. Ukraine doesn’t have enough bullets to fight the Russians.
Its a disaster every which way imaginable.
Putin you little Lili-Put-in, you’re four months into the war and very little, if anything at all, to show for it. Ukraine, a third world military country should have been defeated a long time ago without close to 40,000, yes, 40,000 Russian dead troops including many generals and tons of military weaponry and equipment. So please, either take your meds or change the prescription because whatever it is you’re doing, IT ‘AINT WORKING OUT, AT ALL !!!
Just a truly evil guy, but a smart guy. He sees himself as a huge part of Russian history and has literally sacrificed a reported 36,000 soldiers to make that happen.
It’s funny how Ukraine threw Trump under the bus when he needed Zalenskey, now he eating he is got to deal with Biden.
nu, nu, some say putin is crazy, some say, very smart, some say he will die soon of cancer, etc. Just look at the facts as they occur. 1) russian incompetent military messed up big 2) putin has complete control, there will be no coup 3) putin does not care how many russians will die 4) putin may believe, being corrupted by power and having ordered many murders, that he is a major historical figure and statesman and nothing else matters, 5) as a result more suffering for the russians and ukrainians in the east (the russian-centered half)
The Ukrainians were given plenty of defense armor and money to buy plenty more
If there weren’t so many corrupt politicians in the Ukrainian government stealing the money and selling the armor on the black market then maybe they would be able to defend themselves better
Cool. Let the fool keep swinging.