After several threats to use them having emanated from Russian officials in recent months, he stressed that these weapons were “a means of defense”, that they were intended for a “retaliatory strike”.
In other words, “if we are hit, we hit in response”, hammered the Russian head of state.
Nevertheless, “the threat of a nuclear war is growing”, in view of the Russian-Western confrontation around Ukraine, he noted, blaming this situation on the Americans and the Europeans.
“Any talk lightly on nuclear weapons is absolutely irresponsible,” commented Washington a few hours later.
– “A long process” –
On this occasion, Vladimir Putin once once more justified the offensive he launched more than nine months ago.
Although, “of course, it’s a long process,” he acknowledged.
The “special military operation” launched on February 24 was supposed to result in a lightning Russian victory, but the Ukrainian military forced Russia to give up in the spring in kyiv, then in the fall to withdraw to several other regions.
Responding to one of his interlocutors on Wednesday, the Russian president however judged that “the appearance of new territories” was a “significant result for Russia”.
“The Sea of Azov has become an inland sea, it’s a serious thing,” he proclaimed, referring to this maritime area which borders part of southwestern Russia and southeastern Ukraine, of which Moscow now controls the entire shore.
In addition, Mr. Putin claimed in September the annexation of four Ukrainian regions although Russian control there is only partial and the fighting is daily.
This month, Russian troops had to retreat from Kherson, the capital of the eponymous southern region that Russia considers its own. A humiliating withdrawal which followed that in September of the north-east of Ukraine.
The Kremlin had always denied that its offensive once morest Ukraine was intended to conquer new territories, claiming to want to defend the Russian-speaking populations and put an end to the alliance between kyiv and the West, considered threatening by Russia.
– “Every meter counts” –
Vladimir Putin also returned to the mobilization of 300,000 reservists, civilians therefore, noting that only half of them were immediately deployed in Ukraine.
The announcement of this mobilization had provoked an exodus of Russians abroad and highlighted the army’s serious equipment problems.
On the front, the bombardments continued on Wednesday with six civilians killed and five wounded in a Russian strike on the town of Kurakhové, near Donetsk, in the east, where most of the fighting is currently concentrated.
In this region, “it’s a very tough confrontation, every meter counts,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The occupiers are concentrating their main efforts (…) in the directions (of the cities) of Bakhmout (which the Russian forces have been trying for months to seize, editor’s note) and Avdiivka”, also in the east, has reported in the evening the staff of the Ukrainian army.
Missiles and drones targeted civilian buildings in Korosten, in the vicinity of Zhitomyr (center-west), as well as localities in the Zaporizhia region (south), he continued.
– New European sanctions? –
And if, affirmed Mr. Zelensky, “we have already succeeded in liberating one thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight localities from occupation”, “almost as many Ukrainian towns and villages remain under Russian occupation”.
“We have no right to leave a single Ukrainian under Russian occupation! Not in Russian filtration camps, where thousands of people have already disappeared. And not on Russian territory, where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians were forcibly sent,” said the Ukrainian head of state.
The fauna of Ukraine has also paid a heavy price with the death of thousands of dolphins in the Black Sea in recent months, an “ecocide” denounced on Wednesday by Mr. Zelensky.
According to him, the Ukrainians “collect the evidence of these crimes and intend to hold Russia responsible for them”.
In this context, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed on Wednesday to add nearly 200 individuals and entities to the list of EU sanctions once morest Russia, including its armed forces and three of its banks. .
While welcoming this, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba said he had sent a letter to Josep Borrell, the head of diplomacy of the European Union, asking to “impose severe sanctions on the production of missiles by Russia”.
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