Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that the Ukrainian counter-offensive has “no chance” of success, revealed that Belarus has already deployed some of the nuclear weapons sent to it by Russia and warned that if it wanted to, it could order the destruction of any building in Kiev.
The head of the Kremlin also charged against the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, whom he described as “a shame” for the Jews.
“The Ukrainian armed forces have no chance there or in any other area,” Putin declared, referring to the counteroffensive launched by kyiv in southern Ukraine, during the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.
Ukrainian forces “used their supposed strategic responses to break through Russian defenses, consolidate their own, and advance. None of these objectives were achieved,” said the Russian president.
Putin insisted that Ukraine was suffering “very heavy losses” and considered that it would not be able to fight “for a long time” due to the exhaustion of its military equipment.
Moscow has repeated on several occasions that the current Ukrainian offensive to recover the territories occupied by the Russians is a failure. kyiv, on the other hand, claims to have liberated a handful of towns and about 100 kilometers, especially on the southern front.
According to military analysts, Ukraine has not yet used the majority of its forces in its counteroffensive and is still trying to determine where the weak points are.
Nuclear. The Russian president stressed the power of the missile arsenal. “Russia can destroy any building in the center of Kiev, but it doesn’t for certain reasons,” he said, adding that “Russia is obliged to increase defense spending to ensure its security.”
Putin also stressed that Russia had already started transferring nuclear weapons to Belarus, as he had announced in March.
“The first nuclear warheads were transferred to Belarusian territory. They are only the first, but before the end of the summer we will complete the process, but it is a deterrent measure, ”he said. These are “tactical” nuclear weapons, with a more limited radius of destruction than “strategic” ones, as he explained.
The Kremlin chief reiterated that nuclear weapons can only be used by Russia if there is a threat to the territorial integrity, independence, sovereignty and existence of the Russian state.
“Nuclear weapons have been created to ensure the security and existence of the Russian state. But there is no need ”to resort to them, he stressed. Of course, she made it clear that Russia has “more of these weapons than Western countries” and that is why they want to “push us to start discussing the reduction of the arsenal.”
In his speech before the Forum, the Russian president stressed that “the global changes in all spheres” that are taking place “are not temporary, they are fundamental, deep and irreversible” and again rejected the effectiveness of the sanctions that the United States , the EU and other countries apply to Moscow for the invasion: “Russia will always be part of the world economy”, despite these sanctions, he emphasized.
Finally, Putin considered that Volodimir Zelenski, of Jewish origin, be the “shame” of that people and again justified the Russian military offensive in Ukraine alleging that the former Soviet republic is governed by “neo-Nazis”.
“I have many Jewish friends from my childhood. And they tell me that Zelenski is not a Jew, but the shame of the Jewish people. I’m not kidding,” declared the Russian president.
