Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged on Wednesday that the conflict in Ukraine was “long” while boasting of “significant results” in reference to the annexation he claims of four Ukrainian regions.
“Of course, it’s a long process,” Vladimir Putin said 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 Russian lightning victory, but the Ukrainian army, galvanized by Western weapons, forced Russia to surrender in the spring to take Kiev, and then to push back in several other regions in the fall.
“It is something serious”
In response to one of his interlocutors, Vladimir Putin noted on Wednesday that “the appearance of new territories” was a “significant result for Russia.”
“The Sea of Azov has become an inland sea, this is something serious,” he proclaimed, referring to this border sea with Russia and southeastern Ukraine, of which Moscow now controls the entire coastline.
President Putin also referred to the four Ukrainian regions that he claimed to annex by the end of September, although Russia controls them only partially and is fighting there with kyiv’s forces.
This month, the Russian army even had to withdraw from Kherson, the capital of the eponymous region that Moscow calls its own.
The Kremlin had always denied that its offensive against Ukraine was aimed at conquering new territories, claiming it wanted to defend Russian-speaking populations and end the alliance between kyiv and the West.
A note about reservations.
A few minutes earlier, during this same videoconference meeting, Vladimir Putin spoke again about the mobilization of 300,000 civilian reservists, for which he pointed out that only half were immediately deployed in Ukraine.
“Of 300,000 of our mobilized fighters, our men, our defenders of the Fatherland, 150,000 are in the area of operations,” the Russian leader said, adding that 77,000 are directly deployed in combat.
The other 150,000 are still in training in Russia.
After a series of setbacks, the Kremlin retracted its initial promises and decreed on September 21 the mobilization of these reservists to send them to the front.
Vladimir Putin promised once again on Wednesday that there would be no second wave of mobilization.
Source: BFM TV
