The Russian president also warns that Western arms supplied to Kiev would only prolong the war and not change its outcome.
Foreign-made tanks are a “priority target” for Russian forces in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, and supplying Western weapons to Kiev will not change the course of the war.
Putin also commented on state television on Thursday, reiterating his stance that Ukraine’s membership in NATO would jeopardize Russia’s security, while supplies of Western arms have only exacerbated global tensions and prolonged the conflict.
Asked about France’s decision to supply Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles with a range of 250 kilometers, Putin said: “Yes, they cause damage, but nothing critical happens when they are deployed in the war zone.”
The Russian leader added that foreign-made tanks are “a priority target for our guys.”
(Al Jazeera)
Putin’s comments came as US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that Russia had already lost the war in Ukraine and expressed hope that the ongoing, albeit slow-moving, counter-offensive by Ukrainian forces would bring Moscow to the negotiating table .
“Putin has already lost the war. “Putin has a real problem,” Biden said at a news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki.
“There is no chance that he will win the war in Ukraine,” he said.
Biden also used his visit to Finland, NATO’s newest member, to pledge that Ukraine would one day join the alliance, though NATO leaders told Kiev no timetable at a summit of the western military alliance this week in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius submitted for membership. NATO leaders had dashed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hopes for a clear path to NATO membership, saying that Ukraine would join if “the conditions were met”.
Biden on Thursday expressed more optimism about Ukraine’s NATO membership.
“It’s not about whether they should join or not. It’s about when they can and will join NATO,” Biden said of Ukraine.
Putin’s comments on the attack on Western tanks and his warning of increasing military aid to Kiev were his first public reaction to the statements made at the NATO summit. He also reiterated Moscow’s firm opposition to Ukraine joining the defense bloc, saying it would jeopardize Russia’s own strategic interests.
“This will not increase the security of Ukraine itself. And in general it will make the world much more vulnerable,” Putin said.
Every country has the right to improve its security, Putin added, but not at the expense of another country.
The Washington, DC-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said a generally muted Russian response to developments at this week’s NATO summit showed “how much the Russian invasion of 2022 has set back targets.” . “For which the Kremlin claims it started the war against Ukraine.”
Namely, the “goal to prevent NATO enlargement and actually roll back previous rounds of NATO enlargement and push NATO back from Russia’s borders,” according to the ISW.
“Many Russian sources are reporting on the NATO summit in a sober and subdued manner out of proportion to the larger defeat the summit actually means to Russia’s pre-war goals,” think tank ISW said earlier this week.
In another sign of Moscow’s irritation at NATO’s growing support for Kyiv, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he would view the F-16 fighter jets sent to Ukraine as a “nuclear” threat due to their ability to carry nuclear bombs.
“Russia cannot ignore the ability of these planes to carry nuclear weapons. No amount of assurances will help here,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, also warned this week that NATO members’ support for Ukraine is raising the risk of a third global conflict.
Ukrainian pilots will begin training on F-16 fighter jets in Romania next month, officials said on the sidelines of the NATO summit, although Kiev’s military allies have yet to agree on the supply of US-made fighter jets to Ukraine.