RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Russia seeks to end the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible but Kiev needs to realize that a diplomatic solution is inevitable, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on Thursday.
He also slammed the supply of US-made Patriot missiles to Kiev as an attempt to prolong the conflict and added that Russia had lived through the year "quite steadily." TASS has collected the key remarks that Putin made.
The year’s results
Perfect situations exist only on paper but Russia made it through the year "quite steadily." The current situation does not prevent the country from implementing its plans for the future. All goals will undoubtedly be achieved.
The special military operation was a forced measure.
The Russian economy is performing better than many G-20 countries and there are no troubling indicators.
On State of the Nation Address
The president will deliver his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly early next year: "I won’t give you any dates but we will definitely do it next year."
The rapidly changing situation, which makes it difficult to speak about specific things, is one of the reasons why there was no address this year. The key points that could have made it into the address were touched upon in other speeches.
On US role in Ukraine situation
Putin noted that Washington has long been involved in processes in post-Soviet countries and has long sought to divide the Russian World.
Russia was being "led around by the nose" in terms of resolving the situation in Ukraine since 2014 and Moscow’s opponents achieved their goal, to a certain extent, dividing the two countries' people and setting them against each other. Moscow failed there. "No one wants the Russian people to unite. <...> But we will try to achieve this and we will succeed."
On Patriot supplies to Kiev
The Patriot missile systems that the US has promised to provide to Ukraine are quite old systems and don’t work the way Russia’s S-300 systems do. An antidote to them will be found and "we will crack Patriot missiles, too." "It is nothing but an attempt to prolong the conflict, that’s all."
On the possible protraction of conflict
Russia does not want to escalate the conflict in Ukraine but seeks to end the war that broke out there in 2014. The sooner the conflict ends, the better. A rise in military activities will lead to unnecessary losses.
On Western and Russian defense industries
Western countries aren’t about to run out of their resources but the stockpiles of weapons left over from the Soviet era are definitely running low. It will not be easy for Ukraine to shift to NATO weapons.
Russia is using its stock of weapons but the Ukrainian military-industrial complex is "if not completely zeroed out, then rapidly moving in that direction."
Russia is capable of increasing weapons production but the authorities don’t plan to do that at the expense of other sectors of the economy.
On diplomatic solution to Ukraine issue
Moscow has never refused to hold talks with Kiev and it was the Ukrainian leadership that barred itself from negotiating. All conflicts end diplomatically and the sooner the Ukrainian authorities realize this, the better.
On meeting with ‘business captains’
There was no traditional meeting with Russia’s ‘business captains’ ahead of the holiday season due to the epidemiological situation. However, the president maintains contact with key entrepreneurs.
On response to price caps
A decree on Moscow’s response to the price cap on Russian oil will be signed "on Monday or Tuesday." The price cap itself won’t harm Russia but it paves the way for the destruction of the global economy.
The European Union’s move to cap gas prices will also lead to nothing good. If the decision affects Gazprom’s contracts, the need will arise to think about whether it is worth it to implement them.
On Nord Stream explosions
The explosions that hit the Nord Stream gas pipelines were acts of state terrorism as no individuals could have done that. Those who are interested in continuing the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine are behind the terrorist attack.
On plans for New Year’s Eve
The head of state will try to celebrate the New Year with his family members.
** Afghan pullout helped arm Ukraine
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted on Thursday that the much-criticized withdrawal from Afghanistan, which he called “America’s longest war,”helped Washington redirect resources to Ukraine just months later
Appearing at the State Department for a year-end press conference, Blinken painted a rosy picture of Washington’s diplomatic accomplishments. The exit from Afghanistan, which happened in August 2021, came up because one reporter took issue with Blinken’s claim of strong relationships with US “allies and partners,”some of whom she said were critical of how that US handled that operation.
Consultations were “sustained, they were intense, and we strongly took note of everything that we heard from allies and partners in advance of the decisions that President [Joe] Biden made and that we made,” Bliken insisted, arguing that claims otherwise are “not born out by the facts.”
Though the reporter had asked about lessons of that withdrawal in “dealing with Russia and China,” Blinken proceeded to argue that “if we were still in Afghanistan, it would have, I think, made much more complicated the support that we’ve been able to give and that others have been able to give Ukraine”against Russia.
The last US soldier departed from the Kabul airport on August 31, 2021. The US-backed Afghan government had collapsed without much of a fight two weeks earlier, leaving the Taliban in control of the country – as they had been in 2001.
While the cost of the 20-year conflict has been estimated at over $2 trillion, the US spent almost $73 billion in 2021 dollars on training, equipping, maintaining and supplying the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), most of it from the Pentagon budget. The bulk of ANDSF weaponry and equipment ended up in Taliban hands.
By comparison, the Russian Defense Ministry estimated earlier this week that total Western aid to Ukraine this year amounted to over $97 billion. The Pentagon alone has spent at least $20 billion in direct “security assistance” to Ukraine since February 2022, by its own admission. Other US government departments, NATO and EU members accounted for the rest.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky visited Washington in person on Wednesday, receiving a pledge from Biden to fund Kiev for “as long as it takes”and a $1.85 billion packet of weapons and ammunition, including a battery of Patriot air defense missiles. Zelensky also addressed a special joint session of Congress, with a plea to approve another $45 billion in aid for 2023. The Senate did so the following day.
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
IRAN WARNS ZELENSKY
An Iranian official issued a warning to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday that his country's patience is not "endless" amid continued accusations that Russia is using Iranian drones in the Ukraine war.
Iran has repeatedly denied that it provided drones to Russia, but this claim has been challenged by Western and Ukrainian officials and media reports.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan initially told CNN in July that the U.S. had information that Iran was preparing to provide several hundred drones to Russia, including weapons-capable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The Washington Post, citing unnamed U.S. officials, reported in August that Russia had picked up its first shipment of the UAVs and departed Iran with them on August 19.
Earlier this month, the British Ministry of Defence wrote in an intelligence update that Russia had likely been resupplied with Iranian-made drones after exhausting its previous stock of the UAVs.
A release issued by Iran's Foreign Ministry on Thursday again took aim at the allegations, this time focusing on what it said were Zelensky's "repeated accusations and rude remarks against the Islamic Republic of Iran at the U.S. Congress."
On Wednesday, Zelensky made his first trip outside of Ukraine since the start of the war in late February to visit Washington, D.C., while his country seeks more Western aid for the war.
During an address before a joint meeting of Congress, the Ukrainian president spoke about Russia's frequent waves of missile attacks and said that Iran had become an ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime in "this genocidal policy."
"Iranian deadly drones sent to Russia in hundreds—in hundreds became a threat to our critical infrastructure," Zelensky said. "That is how one terrorist has found the other."
Later in the address, Zelensky mentioned the possibility that Russia would send Iranian drones to attack on Christmas Eve and force Ukrainian civilians into bomb shelters.
According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry's release, spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that Iran has repeatedly responded to "baseless accusations regarding drones leveled by Ukrainian officials against the Islamic Republic."
Kanaani also said that Iran has not provided either side with military equipment for use in the Ukraine war.
"Zelensky had better know that Iran's strategic patience over such unfounded accusations is not endless," Kanaani said.
The release added that Kanaani advised Zelensky to "draw a lesson from the fate of some other political leaders who contented themselves with the U.S. support."
The U.S. has announced a series of aid packages for Ukraine since the start of the war. The latest was a $1.85 billion military aid package announced Wednesday that included the MIM-104 Patriot missile defense system.
Newsweek reached out to Iran's Foreign Ministry for clarification on the advice to Zelensky. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry was also contacted for comment.
FIGHT FOR BAKHMUT
Since August, Russian forces have been bogged down in a costly, extended fight for Bakhmut, an industrial town with a pre-war population of some 70,000 in the Donetsk region, one of four that Moscow claimed to annex after so-called referendums in September.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Facebook on Thursday that fighting in Donetsk remained focused on Bakhmut and Avdiivka, about 90 km (54 miles) south of it.
Near Bakhmut, Russian forces shelled about 10 towns, while close to Avdiivka, Russian forces trained fire on the towns of Kostyantyivka and Maryinka as well as Vodyane and Nevelske, the Ukrainian military said. Reuters was not able to independently confirm the battlefield reports.
Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov said on Thursday the frontline in Ukraine was stable, and that Moscow's forces had concentrated on "completing the liberation of the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic".
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited army units fighting in Ukraine, state-owned news agency RIA reported, citing the ministry. It did not say where.
TASS/RT/Newsweek/Reuters
