Putin also said that Ukraine had deliberately hit the Kakhovka dam last week with US-supplied HIMARS rockets, a move he said had hindered their counteroffensive. He said Ukraine had lost 25-30% of the vehicles supplied to it from other countries. He says Ukraine's losses have been 10 times as much as Russia's, claiming Ukraine had lost more than 160 of its tanks, while Russia had lost 54. The Russian president spoke about Ukraine's counteroffensive, which he says began on 4 June. Putin has been speaking in the past few minutes to Russian war correspondents and military bloggers. It was a bid to try to reassure them that their president has 'still got this'.
Today we witnessed another salvo in the information war, mainly directed at his own people. That of course, per Vladimir Putin, was a matter of self-defence. Never mind the small matter of Russian troops crossing Ukraine’s sovereign borders on 24 February last year. Otherwise, some tried and tested rhetorical lines were used - the key to resolving this conflict lies with the West, he said if they stop the supply of weapons then he’d be happy to talk - and that strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure were the result of Ukraine crossing Russia’s 'red lines'. Those raids are an embarrassment and so far the President can’t explain why he can’t stop them. He didn’t have much of an answer, just that the borders needed strengthening (there has been a considerable sum spent already on those borders), and that Russia might have to look into creating a 'sanitary line' in Ukraine, whatever that means. The only moment he seemed slightly rattled was when he was asked about Belgorod and why cross-border raids were able to keep on happening.
Of course, this was all carefully choreographed with questions which would have been cleared in advance by the Kremlin. That would depend on what Russia wants to achieve in the future, Putin said, musing on the possibility he might try to take Kyiv again. Talk of targeting Kyiv again undermined by raids on Russiaįor example, he did not rule out a possible further mobilisation, unlike his press secretary who does so on a frequent basis. There are of course various filters at play here - what he is told by his commanders, what he wants the public to believe, what he wants the West to hear and what is actually true (which he may or may not know).īut he did address questions which would be of concern to the Russian people and some answers may not prove particularly comforting. Russia’s top pro-war military bloggers and military correspondents from state publications are a captive audience and from his body language, Vladimir Putin clearly relished the moment, giving them his version of what’s what on the ground as Ukraine’s counteroffensive continues. Here our Moscow correspondent, Diana Magnay, gives her analysis of the messages Russia's president was trying to send out at the event.
Vladimir Putin has been speaking to military bloggers today.
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