Putin Says Russia’s Military Has Momentum in Ukraine, Poised to Meet Moscow’s Goals

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) talk after an expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board at the Russian National Defense Control Center in Moscow, Russia, 19 December 2023. (EPA/ Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) talk after an expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board at the Russian National Defense Control Center in Moscow, Russia, 19 December 2023. (EPA/ Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / Kremlin)
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Putin Says Russia’s Military Has Momentum in Ukraine, Poised to Meet Moscow’s Goals

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) talk after an expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board at the Russian National Defense Control Center in Moscow, Russia, 19 December 2023. (EPA/ Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) talk after an expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board at the Russian National Defense Control Center in Moscow, Russia, 19 December 2023. (EPA/ Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / Kremlin)

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that his country's military has seized the initiative in Ukraine after repelling a monthslong counteroffensive and is well positioned to achieve Moscow's goals.

Putin's spoke at a meeting with top military brass a day after he presented documents to Russia’s Central Election Commission to seek reelection in the March presidential vote.

“Our troops are holding the initiative,” the Russian leader said. “We are effectively doing what we think is needed, doing what we want. Where our commanders consider it necessary to stick to active defenses they are doing so, and we are improving our positions where it's needed.”

The Russian leader praised Russia's troops for beating back Ukrainian attacks during the counteroffensive that started in June.

“The enemy has suffered heavy casualties and to a large extent wasted its reserves while trying to show at least some results of its so-called counteroffensive to its masters,” Putin said, adding that “the myth about invulnerability of Western weapons also has collapsed.”

“All attempts by the West to deliver us a military defeat, a strategic defeat, were shattered by the courage and fortitude of our soldiers, the growing might of our armed forces and the potential of our military industries,” Putin said.

During the counteroffensive that began in early June, Ukrainian forces have failed to make any significant gains as they faced multi-echeloned Russian defensive lines, including sprawling minefields.

Speaking at the same meeting, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Russian minefields spread for 7,000 kilometers (more than 4,300 miles).

Shoigu said that 650,000 Russian soldiers have received combat experience in Ukraine, turning the Russian army into “the best prepared and capable army in the world, armed with advanced weapons that have been tested in combat.”

“Despite the sanctions, we produce more high-tech weapons than NATO countries,” Shoigu said.

He declared that the Russian arms industries have increased the output of tanks by 5.6 times, the number of drones built by 16.8 times and bolstered the production of artillery munitions by 17.5 times since the start of what the Kremlin calls “the special military operation” in Ukraine.

Shoigu said the military has received more than 1,500 new and modernized tanks, more than 2,500 armored infantry vehicles and 237 new planes and helicopters.

The minister said Russia's armed forces were finalizing preparations for putting the Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile on combat duty and also building the infrastructure for the deployment of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile and the Poseidon atomic-powered, nuclear-armed underwater drone.

Shoigu charged that military personnel from NATO countries operate Ukraine’s air defense systems, multiple rocket launchers and tactical missile systems and also help plan military operations and train troops. He didn’t provide specifics to support his claim.

While hailing the military's performance, Putin noted the need to improve military communications, streamline the use of intelligence and counter-artillery means, and increase supplies of precision munitions and drones. He added that Russia also needs to expand the capability of its satellite assets.

Putin particularly emphasized the importance of bolstering the country's nuclear forces, saying that their role has increased amid “the changing character of military threats and the emergence of new military-political risks.”

Putin reaffirmed his long-held argument that he sent Russian troops into Ukraine to counter security threats to Russia posed by Western plans to incorporate the country in NATO. Ukraine and its Western allies have denounced the move by Moscow as an unprovoked act of aggression.

“The West isn't abandoning its strategy of containment of Russia and its aggressive goals in Ukraine,” Putin said. “Well, we also aren't going to abandon the goals of the special military operation.”

He declared that Russia is open for talks to end the conflict but warned that “we won't give up what is ours.”

“If they want to talk, let them enter the talks,” Putin said. “But we will proceed from our interests.”



ICC Opens Inquiry into Hungary for Failing to Arrest Netanyahu

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
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ICC Opens Inquiry into Hungary for Failing to Arrest Netanyahu

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)

Judges at the International Criminal Court want Hungary to explain why it failed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Budapest earlier this month.

In a filing released late Wednesday, The Hague-based court initiated non-compliance proceedings against Hungary after the country gave Netanyahu a red carpet welcome despite an ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.

During the visit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced his country would quit the court, claiming on state radio that the ICC was “no longer an impartial court, not a court of law, but a political court.”

The Hungarian leader, regarded by critics as an autocrat and the EU’s most intransigent spoiler in the bloc’s decision-making, defended his decision to not arrest Netanyahu.

“We signed an international treaty, but we never took all the steps that would otherwise have made it enforceable in Hungary,” Orbán said at the time, referring to the fact that Hungary’s parliament never promulgated the court’s statute into Hungarian law.

Judges at the ICC have previously dismissed similar arguments.

The ICC and other international organizations have criticized Hungary’s defiance of the warrant against Netanyahu. Days before his arrival, the president of the court’s oversight body wrote to the government in Hungary reminding it of its “specific obligation to comply with requests from the court for arrest and surrender.”

A spokesperson for the ICC declined to comment on the non-compliance proceedings.

Hungary’s decision to leave the ICC, a process that will take at least a year to complete, will make it the sole non-signatory within the 27-member European Union. With 125 current signatory countries, only the Philippines and Burundi have ever withdrawn from the court as Hungary intends.

Hungary has until May 23 to submit evidence in its defense.