President Vladimir Putin stuck to his hardline stance on the war in Ukraine yesterday and said his troops were advancing on the battlefield every day, but he also said that US President Donald Trump’s proposals for peace could end the fighting if Kyiv was ready to compromise.
He made his comments to foreign media editors, including Reuters, on the sidelines of Russia’s showcase annual economic forum as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy published an open letter to Putin in which he proposed the two leaders meet to agree on an end to the war, warning that Kyiv stood ready to fight on otherwise.
Putin’s spokesman said the Kremlin chief was aware of the message, but had not yet had a chance to familiarise himself with its contents in detail. Trump said it would be great if the two leaders met.
Speaking in what is the fifth year of Europe’s deadliest land war since the Second World War, a conflict that Russia – one of the world’s biggest military superpowers – thought it would win quickly, Putin said that manpower, industrial resources and will power were on Russia’s side. His army had ‘recently’ pushed Ukrainian forces out of nearly 2,500km of territory, he said, though he conceded that Moscow had to and would improve its air defences to contend with a growing threat from Ukrainian drones.
Some Western and Ukrainian military analysts say Russia’s advance has slowed significantly, however, and argue that Russia is still a long way from achieving its own stated military goals. Putin struck a bullish note, though.
“The offensive is ongoing on a daily basis. At present, the Russian Federation has taken full control of the Luhansk People’s Republic – 100 per cent. And Russia has brought over 85pc of the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic under its control. (And) 80pc of the territory of the Zaporizhzhia region,” he said, referring to three of the four regions in Ukraine which Moscow claimed as its own in 2022 in a move Kyiv and most Western countries rejected as an illegal land grab.
“Naturally, under these circumstances, the Ukrainian side would like us to halt the advance. But rather than stopping that, it would be better to bring the war to an end altogether by agreeing to the compromises that were discussed in Anchorage,” he said, referring to a summit he held in Alaska with Trump in August last year.
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