Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Friday that he was not looking to “destroy” Ukraine and saw no need to deploy massive strikes there in the near future — only to launch four “kamikaze drones” into Kyiv Monday morning.
The Russian leader made the Friday comments at a rare press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, after taking part in a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a regional intergovernmental organization made up of former Soviet nations. The summit and Putin’s 30-minute briefing occurred days after Russia had unleashed a series of missile strikes on civilian areas of major cities across Ukraine in response to the destruction of a key Kremlin-built bridge.
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“No. I want everyone to understand what is happening today is unpleasant, to put it mildly,” Putin said when asked if he had any regrets about launching his military invasion. “But we would have got the same thing a bit later, only under worse conditions for us, that’s all. So my actions were correct and timely.”
Pressed by the same reporter on if he thought Ukraine would be able to exist as a state after this war, the Russian president pushed back: “We do not set ourselves the task of destroying Ukraine. No, of course not.”
As for his next moves in the brutal conflict, Putin claimed there was “no need for massive strikes now” on Ukraine because most of their desired targets were hit.
“At least for now,” he added. “As for the future, we’ll see.”
That “future” he referenced arrived quickly, though, with Russia launching a series of strikes on Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv early Monday morning.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office confirmed Monday that there had been multiple explosions in the country’s capital city and that one of the targets appears to have been the headquarters of Ukraine’s national energy utility. The officials referred to the weapons as “kamikaze drones,” which they cautioned would eventually backfire on Russian forces.
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Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a Telegram post that multiple buildings had been damaged, including one that caught fire as a result of a strike in the city’s central Shevchenkiv district. Air raid sirens were left on for three hours, forcing residents to shelter in place as medics and other rescue workers responded.
Alexander Kamyshin, CEO of the state-owned Ukrainian Railways, tweeted that the attacks had reached an area near Kyiv’s main train station but that trains were still on schedule.
