Putin vows victory in Ukraine as US and Russia prepare for Miami talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed confidence in victory for his war in Ukraine during a meeting with senior military officials on Wednesday amid a renewed diplomatic push to achieve a peaceful solution to the conflict. He said that more than 300 localities in the neighbouring country have been conquered this year alone. “Among them are also large cities that have been turned by the enemy into fortress nodes with permanent defensive installations,” Putin said. The Russian president said his country’s army was on the rise, in contrast to the Ukrainian forces. The pace of conquests would only increase thanks to experience, the 73-year-old leader said. While Russia preferred diplomacy, Putin said it was ready to “regain [Russia’s] historical territories by military means”. He also reiterated his intention to establish a “buffer zone”, that is, to occupy a strip about 30km long in northern Ukraine along the Russian border. Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine has since been defending itself against the invasion with Western support. In this context, Putin praised not only his own army, which he said has proven superior despite Western support for Kyiv, but also his own arms industry. As examples, he cited successful tests of the strategic cruise missile Burevestnik (Storm Petrel) and the underwater apparatus Poseidon, as well as the mobile intermediate-range missile Oreshnik (Hazel Shrub), which was to be delivered to the armed forces by the end of the year. During the session, Putin also once again praised US President Donald Trump. Negotiations with the new US government were making progress, Putin said, but he once again blamed the collective West for the war he ordered against Ukraine: “Basically, the West itself started the war. We are just trying to end it”. The Kremlin earlier signalled a willingness to discuss the possible deployment of Western troops in Ukraine, despite its long-standing opposition to such a move. The Tass news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Russia’s position on the stationing of foreign forces was “well-known, consistent and clear” - but it could nevertheless be “a subject for discussion”. The proposal resurfaced during talks in Berlin this week involving US, European and Ukrainian officials. So far, there was no publicly known position from the US side, and Washington has not signed a paper on this published by the German government. Peskov left open which negotiations he was referring to and did not say that Russia was ready to discuss troops from Nato countries. However, he made it clear that Russia’s position of categorical rejection of such troops remained unchanged. According to the vision of the Europeans, a European-led multinational force could be stationed in Ukraine after a ceasefire was concluded and monitor its compliance. It would thus be part of the security guarantees demanded by Kyiv against a renewed Russian attack. The composition of the force was unknown. In the past, Russia has sharply criticised the idea of deploying Western troops. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov raised alarm last week when he said that peacekeeping troops stationed in Ukraine could become “legitimate targets”. Politicians in Moscow have also warned of a potential World War III if troops from Nato countries were indeed stationed in Ukraine. According to Peskov, Russia has not yet been officially informed about the status of the talks between the United States, Europe and Ukraine. However, some clarity may come as early as this weekend. A White House official on Wednesday said that US and Russian officials would meet in Miami for more talks. The White House official did not give details of the US and Russian teams. According to Politico, US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were expected to lead the US delegation, while Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, would be part of the Russian delegation. The diplomatic momentum follows signals from Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed progress during two days of meetings in Berlin between Kyiv and Trump’s envoys, while warning that Moscow was preparing for a “new year of war”. Putin has justified the war as necessary to prevent Ukraine’s Nato membership and the presence of alliance troops that Moscow considers hostile. At the military meeting in Moscow, Putin once again emphasised that Russia insists on the non-expansion promise once given by Nato. Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

Putin vows victory in Ukraine as US and Russia prepare for Miami talks

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Russian leader boasts of battlefield gains in Ukraine while his envoys prepare to meet the Americans this weekend

Russian leader boasts of battlefield gains in Ukraine while his envoys prepare to meet the Americans this weekend