Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday claimed he was confident his forces would achieve military success in Ukraine and said that the “main goal” is to protect civilians in the east, signaling that Russia would refocus its efforts in Ukraine’s Donbas region.
The Russian leader, in his first extended comments about the war since March, defended his decision to invade, but unlike previous comments, he did not say the operation was “going according to plan.” He did say he had “no doubt” his troops would be successful in the end.
“What we are doing is helping people and saving people, on the one hand, and on the other hand, we are simply taking measures to ensure the security of Russia itself,” Putin said during televised comments. “It is obvious that we had no other choice.”
Putin made his remarks during a tour of the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East alongside ally President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus. Both were celebrating Cosmonautics Day, which marks the anniversary of the first human spaceflight by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961.
PUTIN PURGES 150 INTELLIGENCE AGENTS FOR UKRAINE FAILURES: REPORT
The decision to tour the facility appeared to be a calculated one by Putin, who touted that the Soviet Union had managed to beat out the entire world despite being technologically isolated. He added that Russia would also press forward with its lunar program and made comments that could be applied to the current conflict in Ukraine.
“We are not going to isolate ourselves, and it is generally impossible to isolate anyone in the modern world, and most certainly not as huge a country as Russia,” he said.
Following the tour, Putin said Russia’s economy has been able to withstand the shock of sanctions and listed the bounce back of the ruble, as well as the central bank’s decision to lower interest rates, as examples of Russia’s place in the world. He added that countries in nearly every continent are too dependent on Russian energy exports and food to allow for complete isolation.
Western nations have slapped several rounds of sanctions on Russia, Putin, his adult children, and his oligarch friends in an effort to punish Moscow for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Intelligence from Britain’s Ministry of Defense on Tuesday seemed to align with Putin’s comments about moving troops to the Donbas. Britain said Russian forces are continuing to pull out of Belarus to support operations in eastern Ukraine, where fighting “will intensify over the next two to three weeks.”
The Donbas region has been torn by fighting between Russian-allied separatists and Ukrainian forces since 2014. Military strategists have said Russia is banking on local support, logistics, and terrain in the Donbas favoring Russia’s larger and better-armed military, which could turn the tide in Russia’s favor following seven weeks of pushback by Ukrainian forces.
Despite the new build-up in the east, Russia used air- and sea-launched missiles to destroy an ammunition depot and airport hangar in Starokostiantyniv in the western Khmelnytskyi region, as well as an ammunition depot near Kyiv.
Ukraine also investigated a claim that a poisonous substance was dropped on Mariupol as Western leaders warned Russia on Tuesday that any use of chemical weapons would be a serious escalation.
The mayor of Mariupol told the Associated Press that more than 10,000 civilians have died since the war broke out on Feb. 24 and that their corpses “carpeted through the streets.”
The besieged southern port city has seen some of the heaviest attacks and civilian suffering in the war. The near-constant land, sea, and air assaults by Moscow have crippled Mariupol’s ability to get information out about new horrors inside the city.
Mayor Vadym Boychenko accused Russian forces of blocking multiple attempts by humanitarian convoys to get aid to Mariupol, in part to conceal the carnage. Boychenko told the AP the death toll could surpass 20,000.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The mayor of Kherson, another hard-hit area, pleaded for the Ukrainian government to send money to keep the city’s utilities running, the New York Times reported.
“If anyone can hear me, please make sure the payments go through,” he said via video from the now Russian-occupied city.
