Putin says Russia just starting in Ukraine, peace talks will get harder with time

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin mentioned on Thursday that Russia had barely bought began in Ukraine and dared the West to attempt to defeat it on the battlefield, whereas insisting that Moscow was nonetheless open to the thought of peace talks.

In a hawkish speech to parliamentary leaders greater than 4 months into the struggle, Putin mentioned the prospects for any negotiation would develop dimmer the longer the battle dragged on.

“Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. What can you say, let them try,” he mentioned.

“We have heard many times that the West wants to fight us to the last Ukrainian. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it seems that everything is heading towards this.”

Russia accuses the West of waging a proxy struggle in opposition to it by hammering its financial system with sanctions and stepping up the availability of superior weapons to Ukraine.

But whereas boasting that Russia was just entering into its stride, Putin additionally referred to the potential for negotiations.

“Everyone should know that, by and large, we haven’t started anything yet in earnest,” he added. “At the same time, we don’t reject peace talks. But those who reject them should know that the further it goes, the harder it will be for them to negotiate with us.”

It was the primary reference to diplomacy in many weeks after repeated statements from Moscow that negotiations with Kyiv had completely damaged down.

Since invading Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian forces have captured giant swathes of the nation, together with finishing the seizure of the japanese area of Luhansk final Sunday.

But their progress has been far slower than many analysts predicted, and so they have been overwhelmed again in preliminary makes an attempt to take the capital, Kyiv, and second metropolis, Kharkiv.

Prospects for compromise seem distant as Ukraine, emboldened by Western assist and the heavy losses it has inflicted on its opponent in phrases of each males and gear, has spoken of driving Russia out of all of the territory it has seized.

Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Mykhailo Podolyak, mentioned on Twitter this week that its situations to renew talks would come with: “Ceasefire. Z-troops withdrawal. Returning of kidnapped citizens. Extradition of war criminals. Reparations mechanism. Ukraine’s sovereign rights recognition.”

Putin mentioned it was apparent that Western sanctions have been creating difficulties, “but not at all what the initiators of the economic blitzkrieg against Russia were counting on.”

Parliamentary leaders responded to Putin’s feedback and one, Sergei Mironov of the A Just Russia occasion, inspired him to arrange a particular company to facilitate the combination of occupied Ukrainian territories into Russia – an concept that Putin promised to debate.

Additional reporting by Ronald Popeski; Editing by Leslie Adler

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