MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin has challenged the West to try and defeat Russia “on the battlefield” and said Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine marked a shift to a “multi-polar world”.
The Russian leader said Russia had barely gotten started in terms of its war in Ukraine and dared the West to try to defeat it in warfare, while also insisting that Moscow was still open to the idea of peace talks.
Putin to West: You want to defeat Russia on the battlefield? Try it! But keep in mind that we haven’t even started anything serious yet. pic.twitter.com/JZF62zQbUh
— Putin Direct (@PutinDirect) July 7, 2022
In a hawkish speech on Thursday to parliamentary leaders more than four months into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Putin said the prospects for any negotiation would grow dimmer the longer the conflict dragged on.
“Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. What can you say? Let them try,” Putin said.
“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,” he said.
Russia has accused the West of waging a proxy war against it by hammering the Russian economy with sanctions and stepping up the supply of advanced weapons to Ukraine.
But while boasting that Russia was just getting into its stride in terms of the war, Putin also referred to the possibility of negotiations.
“Everyone should know that, by and large, we haven’t started anything yet in earnest,” he said.
