Putin: Russia Will Not End War in Ukraine Until All Goals Achieved
The Russian president made the remarks during his annual, year-end address
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia’s war in Ukraine will end when his country’s three top objectives are realized: “denazification of Ukraine, its demilitarization, and neutral status.”
Putin’s speech came shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington, D.C., in hopes of scoring $61 billion from the U.S. to help fund the war that will be entering its second year. Putin said Russian troops (617,000) “to say it humbly, are improving their positions” along the entire 1,200-mile frontline.
“Today Ukraine produces almost nothing,” he said, according to The Guardian. “Everything is being brought in for free. But that could run out at some point. And it seems that they are gradually running out.”
Putin told a conference in October that Russia is not interested in seizing new territory in Ukraine and wants the conflict to come to a swift end. Russia currently controls about 20 percent of what was considered Ukraine prior to the 2022 invasion, which includes two Donbass republics and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.
Kyiv has said it will not stop the fight until it reclaims all of its territory and Crimea.
Putin addressed the Valdai International Discussion Club in October and Ukraine was one of the centerpiece topics. He said Russia is the largest country on the planet and its motivator is not taking new territory.
“The war started by the Kyiv regime with the active, direct support of the West is now in its tenth year,” Putin said, according to the report. “The special military operation is aimed at stopping it.”
He said the war is not a territorial conflict.
“This question is much broader and more fundamental. We are talking about the principles of a new world order,” he said.
“We are, in fact, faced with the task of building a new world,” Putin said.
NBC News reported that Putin also addressed other issues, including Gaza and Russia’s blossoming relationship with China.
Putin also called the destruction of Gaza a “catastrophe” and suggested that Russia and China are enjoying an “unprecedented” level of cooperation, with trade reaching more than $200 billion this year. He also said the Russian economy was strong despite Western sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine.
TRENDPOST: Putin correctly highlighted the real reason Ukrainians continue to die on the battlefield, and how peace could have been achieved diplomatically if the West wasn’t so fixated on trying to eliminate its Russian rival.