US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, has “already lost the war” in Ukraine, expressing confidence that Kiev’s counter-offensive will pay off (albeit slowly) and force Moscow to the negotiating table to sit down. . Biden therefore believes that the war will not drag on for years, and also says that there is “no real prospect” that Putin will escalate the conflict and use nuclear weapons.
Biden spoke at a press conference alongside Finnish President Sauli Niinisto during his visit to Finland, the newest member of NATO. And he left a guarantee that the US will remain a member of the Atlantic Alliance – after being questioned about what will happen if Republican Donald Trump, who threatened to leave NATO when he was in the White House, is re-elected next year .
The US president also remembered that Ukraine cannot join the Atlantic Alliance now or it would be “the third world war”, but he made it clear that “they will join”. It’s not a question of whether or not they will, but only when – and never as long as the war lasts.
In an interview with Russia’s public television channel at the end of the day, Putin warned that Ukraine’s accession “will make the world more vulnerable and create additional tensions on the international stage”. The president reiterated that he “has stated on several occasions that this poses a threat to Russia’s security”. And he remembered that “one of the causes of the special military operation [designação usada pelo Kremlin para a invasão em fevereiro de 2022] is the threat of Ukraine’s accession to NATO”.
Putin further explained that he is not opposed to discussing security guarantees for Ukraine “but with mandatory security guarantees for Russia”. And insisted: “Each country has the right to guarantee its security, and of course it has the right to choose the path it deems most correct to achieve this goal.”
However, the Russian president devalued promises of increased military support to Ukraine at the NATO summit. Western missiles “deal damage, but nothing critical happens in the combat zones where they were used. The same is the case with foreign-made tanks,” he said. Still, he said the equipment provided by NATO will be a “priority target” for his forces in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russia plans to display the NATO equipment it destroyed in Ukraine in front of the embassies of the countries that supplied it. The idea is derived from an action by German activists, who placed a destroyed Russian tank in front of that country’s embassy in Berlin during a demonstration on the anniversary of the invasion. Ukrainians also displayed Russian tanks in a square in Kiev that they destroyed.
In the interview, Putin also recalled that the grain deal, which allows food exports through the Black Sea, will expire next week if not renegotiated. The Russian president insists that none of the promises made to Russia have been fulfilled and that he will only accept to renew the agreement after they are made, saying he is ready to wait “as long as it takes”.
Source: DN
