RUSSIA VOWS TO FIGHT ON, SAYS PUTIN – Russia is ready to fight “until the last Ukrainian dies”, Vladimir Putin has declared
Russia is ready to fight “until the last Ukrainian dies”, Vladimir Putin has declared.
In remarks that will reverberate across Europe and the US, the Russian president insisted Ukraine must surrender territory, claiming his army is “practically impossible to hold back”.
“Some people demand to keep on fighting until the last Ukrainian dies. Russia is ready for that,” Putin said during a trip to Kyrgyzstan.
“If Ukrainian forces leave the territories they hold, then we will stop combat operations. If they don’t, then we will achieve it by military means.”
He said that the latest US peace proposal, negotiated with Ukraine and its European allies, could form “the basis for future agreements”, but then dismissed Ukraine’s leadership as illegitimate and said it was “senseless” to sign anything with them.
His words suggest the Kremlin is unwilling to depart from its demands, including demands for Kyiv to relinquish the entire Donbas region. Russia controls around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, and the issue of occupied and unoccupied land remains the central obstacle in peace talks.
