Russian President Vladimir Putin said this Thursday (19) that he should have launched the invasion of Ukraine before February 2022 and that the operation was not well prepared, in a rare self-criticism about the conflict.
The comments were made during the leader’s annual press conference, which took place in Moscow. “The decision [de invadir] It should have been taken sooner, and we should have prepared more systematically,” he said.
When it attacked its neighbor on February 24, 2022, analysts predicted that Kiev could fall within three days. The hubris of disregarding resistance and basic mistakes such as lack of supply lines and obsolete tactics led to the failure to take the capital.
Putin also spoke for the first time about how the war he launched impacted him. “I started making less jokes and almost stopped smiling. These years were of tribulation for the country, and for me too.” When asked if he is a happy person, he said that “there will only be complete happiness when our boys return from the battle front”.
That said, the Russians are on the offensive today. “The situation is changing drastically” in his favor in Ukraine, he said, reflecting advances since February, especially in the east of Ukraine. On this same farm, two more villages in the Donetsk region were taken.
He said again that he was ready to negotiate, insisting on his terms. “Politics is the art of accommodation. The problem is that the opponent refused to negotiate,” he said.
The interview has been a tradition since December 2001, and had its longest duration in the 2019 edition: 4h54min and 1,895 journalists present. This Thursday, it was exactly 4:30 am. It didn’t happen sometimes, like in 2022, when Russia had bad results in Ukraine, invaded on February 24 of that year.
There is room for dissent, often involving Western journalists. This was the turn of Keir Simmons, the main international correspondent for the American network NBC, and Steven Rosenberg, from the British BBC.
When questioning Putin about a possible meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump, Simmons said that the Russian would be “a weaker leader” for having “failed to achieve his objectives in Ukraine” and for having seen allied dictator Bashar al- Assad being overthrown in Syria.
After saying he was ready for a summit with Trump, “who I haven’t spoken to in about four years,” Putin said he disagreed with Simmons “and those who pay his salary, who want to show Russia as a weak state.”
He then said that his country “is truly sovereign and is stronger today”. Putin then quoted a quote from the American writer Mark Twain (1835-1910): “The rumors of my death were highly exaggerated,” he said, referring in this case to Russia, to applause from the audience who were supposed to question him.
Rosenberg questioned whether Putin considered taking care of his country, given that it is under sanctions and has seen NATO expand with the war. “I pulled the country back from the precipice,” he replied, going over the story of the chaotic 1990s, after the end of the Soviet Union.
PUTIN PROPOSES TO USE NEW MISSILE AGAINST KIEV IN DUEL
Still on the military topic, Putin challenged the United States to what he called a “technological duel” between its new ballistic missile and any Washington anti-aircraft defense system. The stage? Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.
“There is no way to intercept the Orechnik missile. We want to conduct this experiment. Hit, say, Kiev, with all Western anti-aircraft systems on alert. We are going to conduct this technological duel, it will be useful for us and for the Americans”, he said.
The Orechnik, which in Russian means hazel and whose given name Putin admitted was a mystery, became central to Russian war propaganda. Its use in a test against Dnipro in November impressed analysts: it uses multiple warheads like an intercontinental missile, which can be nuclear, and according to the Russian it has a range of 5,500 km.
Putin was responding to a question about the possibility of the US providing a THAAD high-altitude defense system to Volodimir Zelenski.
He also commented on the assassination of the commander of the protection troops against weapons of mass destruction, General Igor Kirillov, killed by a scooter bomb in Moscow on Tuesday (17), calling it a terrorist act. Ukraine admitted the action. Putin said it was necessary to correct “errors” that allowed the attack.
One of the real-time questions came from Kursk, a region invaded by Ukraine, where a resident named Tatiana questioned Putin about “when she could return home or get a new house”.
After saying that reconstruction will come, he talked about the invasion itself. “I’m not going to give a date [para a expulsão dos rivais]but it will happen,” he said, asking two assistants to open a flag of the 155th Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet, which fights in Kursk, sent with soldiers’ signatures to Putin.
The president was then confronted by one of the mediators, war correspondent Dmitri Kulko (Channel 1), about the military’s complaint about pay in Kursk, where combat is not considered part of the war in the neighbor and the pay is lower.
The event brought together around 500 journalists, and selects some of the 1.5 million questions sent by citizens – some are read, others recorded. Like the name of the event, Results of the Year, the tone is a stage for Putin to be held accountable in his own way.
He spoke about everyday issues and the economy. He said that Russian GDP growth is expected to fall from 4% this year to a maximum of 2.5% in 2025 because the economy is somewhat overheated and inflation is around 9%, “which worries us”.
In a rare rebuke to the Central Bank, he said that the increase in interest rates to contain this may have come late. This Friday (20), the BC will decide the country’s new basic interest rate, which is already at an astronomical 21% per year.
Putin spoke about various issues, such as the lack of insulin in some regions, the inflation of butter prices and the relationship he had with foreign leaders he considered close, such as the German Helmut Kohl, the Frenchman Jacques Chirac and the Italian Silvio Berlusconi.
In an out of place moment, he complained about having to answer questions from a journalist from a religious channel, who complained about abortion in Russia, about Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin still having his mummy displayed in Moscow and about pornographic websites.
Regarding abortion, he said it is a woman’s right, despite religious considerations. He skipped Lenin and went straight to pornography: “Maybe we have to offer sites with more interesting content instead of talking about prohibition”, he said ironically, drawing laughter from the audience.
