Russian President Vladimir Putin assured yesterday that the Russian army has all the initiative in the war in Ukraine, in a speech to senior officials from the Ministry of Defense and the country’s Armed Forces.
“Assessing the situation on the ground, at the front [de batalha], it can be safely said that our troops have the initiative. In short, we do what we consider necessary, we do what we want,” Putin said during an event broadcast live on public television.
The Russian head of state emphasized that the Ukrainian army “is suffering heavy losses and has largely exhausted its reserves, while trying to demonstrate to its true masters some kind of result in its much publicized counteroffensive”. “By the way, the myth about the invulnerability of Western military equipment has also collapsed,” Putin said.
The Russian President, who last week assured that Russia has no interest in fighting with NATO, considered yesterday that “the West will not give up its strategy of containing Russia nor its aggressive objectives in Ukraine”.
“Well, we also have no intention of giving up on the objectives of the special military operation,” he added. Putin admitted that “2023 was a tense year for the Armed Forces”, but that his officers and soldiers “professionally” fulfilled their mission and “guaranteed the country’s sovereignty at a global level, nuclear parity and Russia’s strategic security” .
The Russian leader accused the West of continuing its “hybrid war” against the Kremlin, providing Kiev with “real-time” security information and modern weaponry, from rocket launchers, long-range missiles, as well as ammunition and drones’.
“And, as we know, it plans to deliver F-16 fighters to Ukraine and pilot training is already underway,” he added. Putin also assured that Western powers always opted for ultranationalists in Ukraine, even if they were former Nazis, and insisted that, for this reason, if Moscow had not acted in the annexed peninsula of Crimea, a “massacre” would have occurred.
In response, the Russian military industry has also multiplied its production, so that this year the supply of tanks and armored vehicles to the Russian army has tripled.