Putin gave his assessment of various issues on the agenda of the meeting, which was held within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
Touching on the issue of negotiations with Ukraine, Putin noted that all armed conflicts have resulted in peace agreements. “One former leader of a sufficiently important European country told me that all these agreements could be based either on military defeat or victory. Of course we will achieve victory,” Putin said.
“We are ready for negotiations with Kiev.”
Putin stressed the need to conclude an agreement that serves Moscow’s interests, noting that concluding an agreement with the current Kiev regime would be highly problematic.
“The Ukrainian government has lost its legitimacy. This is even enshrined in the country’s constitution,” Putin said.
But Kiev wants to negotiate and is open to finding negotiating partners, Putin said, adding: “We are ready for these negotiations. But I repeat, we are not making any assumptions, we are ready within the framework of the conditions that we put forward, which were agreed when we started these negotiations, first in Minsk and then in Istanbul,” he said.
“Don’t talk about nuclear war”
Putin said the tensions over the use of nuclear weapons were started by Britain, not Russia, and that while a mutual nuclear attack would result in many casualties, he did not expect it to reach this level.
President Putin said that Russia and the United States have missile attack warning systems and stressed that European countries are not prepared for a nuclear attack. President Putin pointed out that Russia’s nuclear weapons are four times more powerful than those the United States will use on Japan, and called on the public not to talk nonsense about nuclear war.
“We can change nuclear theory.”
Putin stressed that Russia has a nuclear doctrine and that everything is written there, saying, “The use of nuclear weapons is possible in exceptional cases when there is a threat to the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. I do not believe that such a situation will arise. There is no need for such a situation,” he said.
President Putin noted that nuclear doctrine is a living tool, said he is closely monitoring what is happening in the world and does not exclude the possibility of making some changes to this doctrine.
But Putin stressed that Russia would test nuclear weapons if necessary, and said that so far no nuclear tests have been carried out because information and computer equipment make it possible to recreate anything.
“We have not yet supplied weapons to countries under pressure.”
Asked whether Russia was sending long-range weapons to the region to strike sensitive targets in countries supplying arms to Ukraine, Putin said, “We have not yet supplied (weapons), but we are doing this (weapons supply) to countries and organizations that are under certain pressure on themselves, including of a military nature. And we even reserve the right to provide it to some legitimate organizations,” he said.
Putin stressed that there is no need for new military mobilization in his country because of the conflict in Ukraine, and said that more than 300,000 people became volunteer contract soldiers last year without a mobilization decision being made, and more than 160,000 people signed contracts since the beginning of this year.
Putin also shared information that Russian forces have captured 47 settlements and 880 square kilometers of land from Ukrainian forces in Donbas and other conflict zones this year.
