Kyiv: Moscow said on Thursday that Ukraine had acquired Patriot missiles from the United States, announced during President Volodymyr ZelenskyRussia’s visit to Washington will not help resolve the conflict or prevent Russia from achieving its goals.
Although the Patriot air defense system is widely considered advanced, President Vladimir Putin has dismissed it as “pretty old”, telling reporters that Russia will find a way to counter it. At the same time, he said Russia wanted to end the war in Ukraine and that would inevitably involve a diplomatic solution.
“Our goal is not to turn the wheel of a military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” Putin told reporters. “We will work to end it, and the sooner the better, of course.”
These comments quickly drew American skepticism. White House spokesman John Kirby said Putin had “shown absolutely no indication that he was prepared to negotiate” an end to the war that began with Ukraine’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia on February 24.
“Quite the opposite,” Kirby told reporters during an online briefing. “Everything he (Putin) does on the ground and in the air shows a man who wants to continue inflicting violence on the Ukrainian people (and) escalating the war.”
Russia has consistently stated that it is open to negotiations, but Ukraine and its allies suspect a ploy to buy time after a series of defeats and retreats on the Russian battlefield have swung the momentum of the 10 month war in favor of Kyiv.
Zelenskyy returned to Ukraine buoyed by President Joe Biden’s support during his trip to Washington on Wednesday, his first trip abroad since Russia invaded its neighbor.
“We come back from Washington with good results. With something that will really help,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.
‘NO DRIVER’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters there were no signs of readiness for peace talks during Zelenskyy’s visit, proving the US was waging a proxy war with Russia “to the last Ukrainian”.
“It’s not conducive to a quick settlement, quite the contrary,” Peskov said of the Patriot system. “And that cannot prevent the Russian Federation from achieving its goals in the special military operation,” using the Russian term for a war in which tens of thousands of people have been killed.
Zelenskyy told Congress on Wednesday that US aid to his country was an investment in democracy as he cited battles against the Nazis in World War II as a call for more help against invading Russia.
He said the Patriot system was an important step in creating an air shield.
“This is the only way to deprive the terrorist state of its main instrument of terror – the ability to strike our cities, our energy,” Zelenskyy told a White House news conference alongside the president. Joe Biden.
Zelenskyy’s comments in Washington came with Republicans – some of whom expressed growing skepticism about sending such aid to Ukraine – poised to seize control of the US House of Representatives from Democrats. January 3.
Congress moved closer on Thursday to approving an additional $44.9 billion in emergency military and economic aid, as part of a broader U.S. government spending bill. This is in addition to some $50 billion already sent to Ukraine this year.
The Biden administration announced $1.85 billion in additional military aid to Ukraine on Wednesday, including the Patriot system, as Zelenskyy began his visit.
Zelenskyy met Polish President Andrzej Duda for talks Thursday on his way home. Poland – which shares a border of around 500 kilometers (310 miles) with Ukraine – has registered more than 1.5 million refugees from its eastern neighbor since the start of the war, the most of any country in the ‘European Union.
WAGNER-GROUP
The White House said on Thursday that a private Russian military company, the Wagner Group, had taken delivery of an arms shipment from North Korea to help bolster Russian forces in Ukraine, a sign of the group’s growing role. in this conflict.
The Russian and North Korean missions to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zelenskiyy’s aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Thursday ahead of Putin’s remarks that the United States had “finally identified the baseline” in the conflict.
“1. Russia must lose. 2. No “territory in exchange for pseudo/global compromises”. 3. Ukraine will receive all necessary military aid. As much as possible. 4. No one cares about hysteria ‘tell us’ about Russia…” he wrote on Twitter.
Ukraine has suffered repeated Russian airstrikes targeting its energy infrastructure in recent weeks, leaving millions of people without electricity or running water in the dead of winter.
Zelenskyy praised electricians for working around the clock trying to keep the lights on as they marked Electrical Engineers Day on Thursday, a day after the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. .
FIGHT FOR BAKHMUT
Moscow has proclaimed that it has annexed four provinces of Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – after holding so-called referendums in September that were dismissed as bogus and illegal by Kyiv and the West.
Russian forces hold almost all of Luhansk but only about 60% of Donetsk, both to the east. Since August, they have been embroiled in a protracted and costly struggle for Bakhmut, an industrial town in the Donetsk region that had some 70,000 inhabitants before the war.
Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov said on Thursday that the front line in Ukraine was stable and that Moscow’s forces were focused on “completion of the liberation of the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic “.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited army units fighting in Ukraine, state news agency RIA reported on Thursday, citing the ministry. He didn’t say where.
Although the Patriot air defense system is widely considered advanced, President Vladimir Putin has dismissed it as “pretty old”, telling reporters that Russia will find a way to counter it. At the same time, he said Russia wanted to end the war in Ukraine and that would inevitably involve a diplomatic solution.
“Our goal is not to turn the wheel of a military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” Putin told reporters. “We will work to end it, and the sooner the better, of course.”
These comments quickly drew American skepticism. White House spokesman John Kirby said Putin had “shown absolutely no indication that he was prepared to negotiate” an end to the war that began with Ukraine’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia on February 24.
“Quite the opposite,” Kirby told reporters during an online briefing. “Everything he (Putin) does on the ground and in the air shows a man who wants to continue inflicting violence on the Ukrainian people (and) escalating the war.”
Russia has consistently stated that it is open to negotiations, but Ukraine and its allies suspect a ploy to buy time after a series of defeats and retreats on the Russian battlefield have swung the momentum of the 10 month war in favor of Kyiv.
Zelenskyy returned to Ukraine buoyed by President Joe Biden’s support during his trip to Washington on Wednesday, his first trip abroad since Russia invaded its neighbor.
“We come back from Washington with good results. With something that will really help,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.
‘NO DRIVER’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters there were no signs of readiness for peace talks during Zelenskyy’s visit, proving the US was waging a proxy war with Russia “to the last Ukrainian”.
“It’s not conducive to a quick settlement, quite the contrary,” Peskov said of the Patriot system. “And that cannot prevent the Russian Federation from achieving its goals in the special military operation,” using the Russian term for a war in which tens of thousands of people have been killed.
Zelenskyy told Congress on Wednesday that US aid to his country was an investment in democracy as he cited battles against the Nazis in World War II as a call for more help against invading Russia.
He said the Patriot system was an important step in creating an air shield.
“This is the only way to deprive the terrorist state of its main instrument of terror – the ability to strike our cities, our energy,” Zelenskyy told a White House news conference alongside the president. Joe Biden.
Zelenskyy’s comments in Washington came with Republicans – some of whom expressed growing skepticism about sending such aid to Ukraine – poised to seize control of the US House of Representatives from Democrats. January 3.
Congress moved closer on Thursday to approving an additional $44.9 billion in emergency military and economic aid, as part of a broader U.S. government spending bill. This is in addition to some $50 billion already sent to Ukraine this year.
The Biden administration announced $1.85 billion in additional military aid to Ukraine on Wednesday, including the Patriot system, as Zelenskyy began his visit.
Zelenskyy met Polish President Andrzej Duda for talks Thursday on his way home. Poland – which shares a border of around 500 kilometers (310 miles) with Ukraine – has registered more than 1.5 million refugees from its eastern neighbor since the start of the war, the most of any country in the ‘European Union.
WAGNER-GROUP
The White House said on Thursday that a private Russian military company, the Wagner Group, had taken delivery of an arms shipment from North Korea to help bolster Russian forces in Ukraine, a sign of the group’s growing role. in this conflict.
The Russian and North Korean missions to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zelenskiyy’s aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Thursday ahead of Putin’s remarks that the United States had “finally identified the baseline” in the conflict.
“1. Russia must lose. 2. No “territory in exchange for pseudo/global compromises”. 3. Ukraine will receive all necessary military aid. As much as possible. 4. No one cares about hysteria ‘tell us’ about Russia…” he wrote on Twitter.
Ukraine has suffered repeated Russian airstrikes targeting its energy infrastructure in recent weeks, leaving millions of people without electricity or running water in the dead of winter.
Zelenskyy praised electricians for working around the clock trying to keep the lights on as they marked Electrical Engineers Day on Thursday, a day after the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. .
FIGHT FOR BAKHMUT
Moscow has proclaimed that it has annexed four provinces of Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – after holding so-called referendums in September that were dismissed as bogus and illegal by Kyiv and the West.
Russian forces hold almost all of Luhansk but only about 60% of Donetsk, both to the east. Since August, they have been embroiled in a protracted and costly struggle for Bakhmut, an industrial town in the Donetsk region that had some 70,000 inhabitants before the war.
Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov said on Thursday that the front line in Ukraine was stable and that Moscow’s forces were focused on “completion of the liberation of the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic “.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited army units fighting in Ukraine, state news agency RIA reported on Thursday, citing the ministry. He didn’t say where.
