Putin says Russia's war in Ukraine will go on unless Kyiv does a deal

[December 14, 2023]  By Guy Faulconbridge and Vladimir Soldatkin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will press on with its war in Ukraine unless Kyiv does a deal that takes Moscow's security concerns into account, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, adding that the goals of the "special military operation" would be met regardless.

Fielding questions from the public and media at an event dominated by the conflict, Putin - who has announced he will seek another six-year presidential term in March - said his initial goals in Ukraine had not changed and that Russian forces had taken the initiative on the battlefield.

"Practically along the entire line of contact, our armed forces are, shall we say, modestly improving their position. Virtually all are in an active stage of action," Putin said.

Russia's core goals remained "de-Nazification", "de-militarization" and securing Ukraine's neutrality, the 71-year-old leader said.

"There will be peace when we achieve our goals," he said. "As for de-militarization, if they (the Ukrainians) don't want to come to an agreement - well, then we are forced to take other measures, including military ones.

"Either we get an agreement, agree on certain parameters (on the size and strength of Ukraine's military)... or we solve this by force. This is what we will strive for," Putin added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said negotiations with Russia are impossible until all Russian soldiers have been expelled from Ukrainian territory, and is seeking further Western assistance to defend his country.

Putin has cast himself as the right man to continue leading Russia through a conflict that he sees as existential for Russia's survival, but which is described by Kyiv and its Western allies as an unprovoked colonial-style land grab.

He said a group of elite Ukrainian forces who had crossed the River Dnipro in Ukraine was being ground down.

"The (Ukrainian) approach seems to be that, while they are travelling and begging (for Western aid), it is necessary to show that the Ukrainian armed forces have some chance of achieving, at all costs and without regard for casualties, some kind of success," said Putin.

"They are simply being driven out of there (from the east bank of the Dnipro), that's all."

Reuters could not verify the battlefield situation.

At one point in Thursday's marathon press conference, Putin took questions from Russian forces fighting near the front line, with gunfire echoing in the background.

CRITICISM OF WEST

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or wounded in Ukraine, cities, towns and villages have been destroyed, and millions have been forced from their homes.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the Constitutional Court judges on Constitution Day outside Moscow, Russia, December 12, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Tereschenko/Pool via REUTERS

Putin said he had detected signs that Western enthusiasm for providing Ukraine with military and financial aid was waning, but that he believed Kyiv would keep receiving help for now.

He reiterated his position that NATO's eastward expansion towards Russia's borders - including Ukraine's desire to join the Western military alliance - was the fundamental cause of the conflict. The West blames Russia for the conflict.

"The unbridled desire to creep towards our borders, taking Ukraine into NATO, all this led to this tragedy... They forced us into these actions," he said.

"When internal changes happen (in the United States), when they start respecting other people... when they start looking for compromise instead of trying to resolve their issues with sanctions and military intervention, then the fundamental conditions will be in place to restore fully fledged relations."

Putin said Russia's war in Ukraine and Israel's bombardment of Gaza were very different.

"...Look at the special military operation (in Ukraine) and what is happening in Gaza and feel the difference. There is nothing like that (what is going on in Gaza)," he said.

"...The Secretary General of the United Nations called today's Gaza Strip the biggest graveyard of children in the world. It is an objective assessment."

Russia says its air strikes do not deliberately target civilians though U.N. officials say more than 10,000 Ukrainians have been killed and over 18,000 injured since Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Putin ruled out a further wave of military mobilization in Russia, adding that Moscow had 617,000 Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

"The flow of men ready to defend our homeland... is not decreasing... There is no need for mobilization as of today," he said.

(Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Andrew Osborn, Editing by Gareth Jones and Timothy Heritage)

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