Missiles struck the Ukrainian capital at the start of a peace mission by seven African leaders – who will meet Vladimir Putin tomorrow. He told business leaders that the Russian economy has shrugged off Western sanctions and is growing. Listen to the Daily podcast as you scroll.
Friday 16 June 2023 16:01, UK
Vladimir Putin is taking questions at the International Economic Forum in St Petersburg now as part of his address that has been going on for nearly four hours.
What started as a speech about Russia’s economy has quickly turned to the topic of the Ukraine war.
The Russian president has claimed Ukraine’s military has “no chances” against his troops, and is running out of its own equipment.
He’s also attacked Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Jewish heritage, saying he is a “disgrace to the Jewish people”.
Speaking about an escalation in the war, Mr Putin says there is a “serious danger” that NATO could be pulled further into the conflict and there is “no doubt” Western tanks are already “burning” in Ukraine.
Moving on to attacks on Russia’s border, he says his troops could destroy parts of central Kyiv in retaliation, but has chosen not to for “various reasons”.
He describes the cross-border attacks, which Ukraine has denied responsibility for, have attempted to distract Moscow’s forces from other fronts.
On nuclear weapons, he says Russia could “theoretically” use nuclear weapons if there was a threat to its territorial integrity or existence, but that it did not need to.
“Nuclear weapons have been made to ensure our security in the broadest sense of the word and the existence of the Russian state, but we… have no such need (to use them),” he adds.
Continuing to speak at the International Economic Forum in St Petersburg, Vladimir Putin returns to boilerplate propaganda blaming Ukraine for Russia’s invasion.
Despite annexing Crimea in 2014 and supporting pro-Russian separatist forces in Donetsk, Mr Putin framed his attack on Ukraine as out of his hands.
“The war in Ukraine was begun by the Ukrainian regime with the support of their Western sponsors in 2014,” he says.
“Bombing began then in the Donbas – that is war.”
He continues: “I was forced to use the armed forces in response to the request of the Donetsk in order to stop this armed operation.”
Mr Putin says that Western countries continue with their “utmost efforts to make sure that there is a tactical defeat of Russia on the field”.
He adds that Ukraine has not seen any success on the battlefield, and he has “no doubt” that more Western military equipment will be destroyed in the country.
In the eastern city of Donetsk, a Ukrainian serviceman has been fixing a Russian infantry fighting vehicle.
With a cigarette in his mouth, 66-year-old Ihor worked to fix the BMP-2, which was captured by Ukrainian forces.
The fighting vehicle has been used by Russian troops since the 1980s, and has been played a role in their invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine will soon run out of its own military equipment, Vladimir Putin has said.
Speaking earlier at the International Economic Forum in St Petersburg, the Russian president said Volodymyr Zelenskyy will soon be totally reliant on hardware supplied by the West.
He added that Ukraine has failed to make progress in its counteroffensive and said its army had “no chance” against Russia’s.
Vladimir Putin has been speaking in St Petersberg this afternoon, talking about Russia’s economic situation.
His topics were wide-ranging, covering GDP forecasts, welfare payments, defence spending and unemployment.
But who was his speech aimed at? Our Moscow correspondent Diana Magnay has given her thoughts…
I think he was speaking to a number of audiences, three, actually.
Firstly, to his own people to say that we’be got it all under control, it’s been a very difficult year economically but we’ve made the right choices, and we’re going in the right direction.
There was a lot of talk about the social benefits that he’s continuing to provide for his people.
Then of course is the foreign dignitaries in the room, who are a very different lot to what we would have seen about 10 years ago.
He needs to court Asia, Latin America, African markets and India. Those are the kind of people that we’re seeing there.
Then of course there’s an oblique nod always to the West to say we can get along despite your sanctions, we can get along despite your businessmen.
There are reports now, and have been fears for a long time, that they’re going to start appropriating Western companies. A lot of Western companies that have vacated are now being run by Russian businessmen and are Russian staffed, and that is a trend that is going to continue.
Returning for a moment to the missile attack on Kyiv, unleashed as African leaders began a visit aimed at “building confidence” in the prospect of peace between Russia and Ukraine.
For those just joining us, missiles were fired today while a delegation of African leaders visited the capital on a peace mission, reportedly forcing them to take cover in a bomb shelter.
The Ukrainian air force said it shot down six Russian Kalibr cruise missiles, six Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles and two reconnaissance drones.
Houses that appeared to be in the suburbs of the Kyiv region further away from the city itself were destroyed.
“Putin ‘builds confidence’ by launching the largest missile attack on Kyiv in weeks, exactly amid the visit of African leaders to our capital,” Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign affairs minister, said.
“Russian missiles are a message to Africa: Russia wants more war, not peace.”
Vladimir Putin is still speaking at the International Economic Forum in St Petersburg.
He has spoken about GDP, defence spending and unemployment, and has now turned his attention to helping Russian businesses.
The Russian president says businessmen in the country “have previously not be able to make it” due to how they are treated by foreign nations.
“These people have previously not been able to make it. Often because of the insistence of unfriendly foreign nations who simply don’t want to allow Russian businessmen on their markets,” he says.
“We obviously have to accelerate measures here and to simplify the procedure for registering Russian businesses, especially when they are being blocked by foreign countries.”
He adds that Russia will launch a system of measures of “legislative legal protection”to help companies in “difficulty in this area”.
While Vladimir Putin speaks in St Petersburg, a delegation of African leaders in Ukraine has been shown a mass grave in Bucha, the Wall of Remembrance in Kyiv and an exhibition of destroyed vehicles.
Among them are:
Russia is “suffering” from a lack of skilled workers, Vladimir Putin says, as he tells the economic forum employment is “at the centre” of his “attention”.
He says employment policies are “very important” at the moment, and the country needs to give “citizens the chance to take part in all this and develop”.
“We are suffering from a lack of skilled workers and this obviously means that structural employment policies are very important here and employment is at the centre of our attention,” he says.
He adds that “particular attention” needs to be paid to areas with unemployment is very high.
Hinting at the impact of sanctions, Mr Putin says: “People said that we would be isolated – on the contrary we have come up with much better relations in terms of our trade partners.”
Russia is not interested in developing relations with partners who support “barbaric practices” and who are “politically incentivised”, he adds.
He said a multipolar economic system is emerging – echoing language used by Russian officials attacking what they call Western hegemony.
“Russia will be very much a part of the world economy,” Mr Putin said.
“The changes in geopolitics is irreversible and we are moving ahead based on practical politics and a responsible relationship with the partners in the market.”
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