War in Ukraine: Putin says he is “satisfied” with recent strikes and believes he is doing “everything right” in Ukraine

Russia is acting “correctly” in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin gave a confident address after nearly eight months of war and, despite repeated setbacks, his military is registering against Ukrainian forces, which will receive $725 million in additional military aid. In the states.

The Russian President spoke to reporters in Kazakhstan after regional summits. On the same day, Ukraine, for its part, celebrated its Defenders Day for the first time since the invasion began, an occasion when its head of state, Volodymyr Zelensky, promised victory to his people.

“What is happening now is not good, but (if Russia had not attacked Ukraine on February 24) a little later we would have been in the same situation, the conditions would have been worse for us. So we are doing everything right,” the Russian president replied to a journalist who asked if he regretted it.

Vladimir Putin was pleased with the massive strikes that hit critical Ukrainian infrastructure on Monday and Tuesday, but also parks and homes. He ruled that new large-scale bombings in Ukrainian cities were “not necessary for the time being”.

Russia launched several missile strikes earlier this week in response to an explosion that partially destroyed Russia’s strategically important Crimean bridge.

In a sign of the embarrassment of Moscow’s traditional partners in the face of conflict in Ukraine, Mr. Putin acknowledged for the first time on Friday that countries in the former Soviet Union close to Moscow were “concerned” by the situation.

Russian power station attacked

“Thank you to all those who fought for Ukraine in the past (…) all those who fought now, those who won then and those who will undoubtedly win now,” said Mr. Zelensky declared. Army.

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On the same occasion, photo-portraits of about 180 soldiers were erected in the square in front of the famous Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. All were killed in the port city of Mariupol, which was besieged by the Russian army for months before it fell in May.

Galina Kolitsina lost both her sons in the war. Senior in 2014, and Denis on March 23 in Mariupol. At 61, he places a hand on a portrait of his younger brother, who died at 32, and then his forehead with tears in his eyes.

“Losing a child is the most terrible thing that can happen. I lost two of my children in the same war. This is my day of remembrance,” she told AFP, wiping her eyes.

Building on the victory on several fronts since early September, Ukrainian officials have been demonstrating their determination not to hesitate to launch attacks on Russian territory.

Thus, a power station located in Belgorod, located in the far west of Russia, “caught fire” on Friday after a Ukrainian strike, Vyacheslav Klatkov, the governor of the border region of Ukraine where it is located, announced that the fire had occurred. Finally brought under control.

The city of 330,000 people has so far been rarely hit by fire from Ukrainian soil, unlike its surroundings, which are regularly targeted.

If Ukraine did not take responsibility for the explosion that destroyed the Crimean bridge, it was happy to partially destroy this essential structure to supply the occupation troops facing a counterattack in the south.

The damage was so significant that Russian Prime Minister Mikheil Mikhostin set a date of July 1, 2023, for the completion of the work.

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New American aid

North of the southern Ukrainian enclave of Kherson, Ukrainian forces continued to advance village by village throughout the week.

On Thursday, Moscow-installed leader Vladimir Salto asked the Kremlin for its help, which was immediately granted to evacuate civilians.

Russian forces, for their part, are in the lead on part of the Eastern Front, where they have been trying to capture Bagmouth since August.

Moscow hopes that taking the bomb-ravaged city will pave the way for Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the two largest cities in the Donetsk region.

According to Andrei Marochko, a representative of Lugansk region separatist forces fighting in the area, “the fighting is ongoing” and Ukrainian forces are being pushed back “to the northwest and west” of Bakhmout.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the Russian military has suffered a series of setbacks since early September, giving up thousands of square kilometers.

These failures led Vladimir Putin in late September to order the mobilization of 300,000 reservists and, therefore, the public in an attempt to change course.

On Friday, he promised not to expect a new wave of conscription. According to him, 222,000 people have been mobilized, of which 16,000 are already in “combatant units”.

Internationally, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the same day she was “disappointed” that the European Commission did not join a group of creditors that agreed to suspend Ukrainian debt repayments for two years.

A short time later, Washington announced a new military aid of 725 million dollars to Kyiv. “This payment brings to an unprecedented $18.3 billion in U.S. military aid to Ukraine since Joe Biden took office,” U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement.

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For its part, Saudi Arabia announced $400 million in humanitarian aid to Kyiv on Saturday.

Elon Musk warned his company SpaceX “cannot continue” funding the Starlink internet network in Ukraine, prompting a US government takeover bid.

According to Elon Musk, around 25,000 terminals have been deployed in the country to date, adding that the move has already cost the company $80 million and that the bill will reach $100 million by the end of the year.

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