Not three days, not a week, not a little more, as Russian propaganda predicted in February and March after President Vladimir Putin ordered the start of the so-called "special military operation" against Ukraine on February 24. The armed conflict is now approaching 10 months, and Putin admitted this Wednesday that it will be long. He also warned of the growing threat of a war with nuclear weapons, although he assured that Russia will not be the first to use them.
"As for the duration of the special military operation, of course it can be a long process," Putin said during the annual meeting of the Human Rights Council, an advisory body to the Russian Presidency, where he spoke by videoconference.
The head of the Kremlin assured that, even so, Russia has already obtained "significant results".
He noted that the Azov Sea has become an inland sea of Russia. "Even Peter I struggled to reach the Azov Sea," the Russian president asserted. But he pointed out that the most important thing has been the annexation of Ukrainian territories. "The results of the referendums showed that people want to be in Russia and consider themselves part of this world, of our common culture, traditions, language. And that is the most important result," he added.
Announcing the intervention in Ukraine on February 24, Putin assured that his goal was to "protect people who for eight years have been subjected to harassment, genocide by the Kyiv regime," as well as "demilitarization and denazification" of the country. neighbour. However, he stated that Moscow's plans "do not include the occupation of the Ukrainian territories."
Express referendums were held at the end of September in the Russian-controlled areas of the Ukrainian provinces of Zaporizhia and Kherson, as well as in the self-proclaimed Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk (RPL) People's Republics. Later, Putin proclaimed the annexation of it to Russia in a ceremony in the Kremlin where the pro-Russian leaders of these territories signed the corresponding agreements.
All this process has been rejected by Ukraine, which considers it illegal and false, and widely criticized by the international community.
Responding to a council member's intervention, Putin agreed that the threat of nuclear war is increasing, but said that Russia has no intention of being the first to use nuclear weapons as an instrument of attack. Russia would use them only "in response" to an enemy nuclear attack on its territory.
"Russia will not be the first to use them under any circumstances. That means it will not be the second either, because the possibilities of using them in the event of an attack on our territory are very limited. However, we consider weapons of mass destruction, the nuclear weapon , as a means of defense. It is based on what is called 'retaliatory attack': if we are hit, we hit back," Putin said.
Despite predicting that this war will last longer than desired, the Russian president ruled out a second military mobilization like the one he himself decreed last September.
"There is no need for additional mobilizations today," Putin said. And he recalled that during the period that the partial mobilization lasted, in September and October, more than 300,000 Russian citizens were called up. Of these, "150,000 are in the area of operations. Of these, half, 77,000, are in combat positions. The rest have remained in the second or third line, fulfilling the role of territorial defense troops or receiving training additional in special operations areas," he explained.
At the Human Rights Council meeting, broadcast on state television, Putin accused the UN and other international organizations, as well as the Western media, of maintaining an anti-Russian attitude regarding the conflict with Ukraine.
"After the start of the special military operation, the UN Human Rights Council, the Council of Europe and other human rights organizations suddenly 'saw the light' and shamelessly began to demonstrate their cynical bias," Putin said wryly. According to him, these structures can no longer fulfill the mission set out in their statutes.
He also complained about Western human rights organizations. According to him, they see Russia as "a second-class country that has no right to exist at all."
"This is what we are fighting with. There can only be one response on our part: a constant fight for our national interests. We will do just that. And that nobody counts on anything else," he said.
