Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said his country’s confrontation with NATO would trigger a “global catastrophe” and signaled a slowdown in the conduct of the Ukraine war, denied the need for more massive attacks and again suggested dealing with the territories annexed by the neighbors.
Putin was speaking at a press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, where he is attending a conference of heads of state and government of Eurasian countries. After dismissing the nuclear rhetoric by claiming that nuclear weapons could be used to defend his conquests in Ukraine, he threw the ball back to the West.
The day before, EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell said the Russian army would be “destroyed” if Putin used nuclear weapons. “I hope those who say so [um confronto com a Rússia] be smart enough not to take such steps,” he said, citing the risk of a “global catastrophe” from a nuclear strike.
Borrell said the Western response would be with conventional weapons, but Russian doctrine is clear that nuclear weapons will be used when there is an existential risk, nuclear or not, to the state or its allies.
In an interview with the American television channel NBC, Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko said that Ukraine and the West should not put pressure on a country with nuclear weapons. “Don’t corner your opponent,” he said, who has just assembled a nebulous joint border force with the Russian ally.
A bit taken aback, it was Putin’s turn, of course blowing in his own way. “We have not made it our mission to destroy Ukraine, of course not. There is no need for massive attacks,” he said when asked about the continuation of missile and drone bombings of civilian infrastructure targets in his neighboring country.
Such attacks took place throughout the war but were focused on a major action on Monday (10), in revenge for the 2014 attack on the bridge linking Russia to annexed Crimea. Putin reiterated that his bombing was for retaliation and preemptive action. “Right now there are other missions because I think only 7 out of 29 targets were missed. [na segunda] as planned, but we will gradually reach them,” said the Russian.
In addition, the Russian President once again suggested that the path leads to negotiations on the recognition of the annexation of four regions in the east and south of Ukraine that he does not fully control, where he recently even suffered military defeats.
He said there was no reason to expand reservist mobilization and that it was necessary because “professional soldiers were not enough to hold the lines”, ie the lines he would like to see drawn. In a UN vote, 140 countries condemned the annexation, 35 abstained and 5, including Russia, rejected the criticism.
What’s more, he said the mobilization would end at 222,000 men, not the 300,000 originally informed. Of these, 33,000 are already in military units and 16,000 are fighting in Ukraine. Hugely unpopular and affecting his admission to research, recruitment is expected to end in two weeks.
Regarding peace talks themselves, the Russian again said his country is open but with international mediation as he sees no interest on the Ukrainian side. He ruled out a conversation with US President Joe Biden in Bali, where a G20 meeting will take place in November.
He criticized Germany for supporting Kiev at the expense of the energy partnership with Moscow that had been built up over the years. “It must decide which is more important: fulfilling alliance obligations or its national interest. In this case, Germany has put its NATO commitments above everything else, and I think that’s a mistake,” he said.
Putin acknowledged that there are concerns among countries like Ukraine and Russia that formed the Soviet Union until 1991 including host Kazakhstan. “Certainly, our partners are interested and also concerned about the future of relations between Russia and Ukraine. But that in no way detracts from the quality and depth of our relationship with them.”
Finally, he repeated that he had no regrets about the war. “No. I want to get this straight: what’s happening today is uncomfortable, to say the least, but we would have to do the same thing a little later, just in worse conditions for us, that’s all. So we do.” it right.” said.