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Russian president Vladimir Putin warned on Friday that Ukraine risks provoking “more serious” action from Moscow with its sweeping counteroffensive, claiming t hat “we so far have responded with restraint”.
Mr Putin vowed to press on with his “special military operation” in Ukraine during his address to reporters after attending the a meeting of Asian world leaders, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, in Uzbekistan.
He said the “liberation” of Ukraine‘s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal and that he has no intention of giving up the fight.
It came as Indian prime minister Narendra Modi offered a public rebuke to Mr Putin for the first time and the Russian leader admitted there were also concerns about the situation in Beijing.
“We aren’t in a rush,” Mr Putin said, as some pro-Kremlin politicians and military bloggers have urged Moscow to order a broad mobilisation to beef up the ranks while lamenting Russia’s manpower shortage.
He accused Ukraine of striking civilian infrastructure in Russia and said it attacked “near our nuclear facilities, nuclear power plants”.
“If the situation develops this way, our response will be more serious,” Mr Putin said.
Putin warns of Ukraine escalation amid widening diplomatic isolation
Vladimir Putin has warned of “more serious” action against Ukraine amid intensifying questions at home and widening isolation on the world stage.
“Our offensive operation in the Donbas is not stopping. They’re moving forward – not at a very fast pace – but they are gradually taking more and more territory,” he said after a summit of authoritarian leaders in Uzbekistan.
The Russian army was forced to pull back its forces from large swathes of northeastern Ukraine last week after a swift Ukrainian counteroffensive.
In what was the largest largest military setback for Moscow since it was pushed back from the capital Kyiv early on in the invasion, Ukraine moved to reclaim control of several Russian-occupied cities and villages.
“Let’s see how it develops and how it ends,” he said referring to the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
He said Ukraine has also attacked Russian civilian infrastructure and “we so far have responded with restraint, but just yet”.
“If the situation develops this way, our response will be more serious,” Mr Putin said.
“Just recently, the Russian armed forces have delivered a couple of impactful strikes,” he said in an apparent reference to Russian attacks earlier this week on power plants in northern Ukraine and a dam in the south.
“Let’s consider those as warning strikes.”
Shweta Sharma17 September 2022 05:33
Good morning, welcome to our coverage of the Ukraine war on Saturday, 17 September.
Shweta Sharma17 September 2022 04:54