Putin vows Russia will press Ukraine invasion till goals met
KYIV, Ukraine: President Vladimir Putin vowed Tuesday that Russia's bloody offensive in Ukraine would continue until its goals are fulfilled, and insisted the campaign was going as planned, despite a major withdrawal in the face of stiff Ukrainian opposition and significant losses.
Russian troops, thwarted in their push toward Ukraine's capital, are now focusing on the eastern Donbas region.
Russia invaded on Feb. 24, with the goal, according to Western officials, of taking Kyiv, toppling the government and installing a Moscow-friendly one. In the six weeks since, Russia's ground campaign stalled, its forces suffered losses that may number in the thousands and it stands accused of killing civilians and other atrocities.
Putin insisted Tuesday that his military action aimed to protect people in areas in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed rebels and to "ensure Russia's own security."
He said Russia "had no other choice" but to launch what he calls a "special military operation," and vowed it would "continue until its full completion and the fulfillment of the tasks that have been set."
Putin says that his country can't be isolated.
Speaking on a visit to the Vostochny space launch facility in Russia's Far East, Putin said Tuesday that Russia has no intention to isolate itself and added that foreign powers wouldn't succeed in isolating it.
He said that it's certainly impossible to isolate anyone in the world of today, especially such a huge country as Russia.
Putin added that we will work with those of our partners who want to cooperate.
For now, Putin's forces are gearing up for a major offensive in the Donbas. which has been torn by fighting between Russian-allied separatists and Ukrainian forces since 2014, and where Russia has recognized the separatists' claims of independence. Military strategists say Russian leaders appear to hope local support, logistics and terrain in the region favor Russia's larger and better-armed military, potentially allowing its troops to finally turn the tide in their favor. In Mariupol, a strategic port city in the Donbas, a Ukrainian regiment defending a steel mill claimed a drone had dropped a poisonous substance on the city. It indicated there were no serious injuries. The assertion by the Azov Regiment, a far-right group now part of the Ukrainian military, could not be independently verified.
It came after a Russia-allied separatist official appeared to urge the use of chemical weapons, telling Russian state TV on Monday that separatist forces should seize the plant by first blocking all the exits. "And then we'll use chemical troops to smoke them out of there," the official, Eduard Basurin, said. He denied Tuesday that separatist forces had used chemical weapons in Mariupol.
Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said officials were investigating, and it was possible phosphorus munitions — which cause horrendous burns but are not classed as chemical weapons — had been used in Mariupol.
