Comment More than four months after the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted on Thursday that the conflict had only just begun. And he challenged Western countries that support Ukraine to “try” to fight Russia on the battlefield. In televised remarks to parliamentary leaders, Putin dismissed the idea that Russia had let the invasion drag on for too long, saying it “hadn’t even really started anything yet.” He said peace talks were becoming increasingly difficult and then focused his anger on Western countries that have imposed broad sanctions on Russia while offering support and resources to Ukraine. “We hear today that they want us to be defeated on the battlefield,” Putin said, according to state media RIA Novosti. “Well, what can I say? Let them try.” He added: “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 working towards it.” The governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which is now almost entirely under Russian control, said on Friday that the city of Severodonetsk was facing a “humanitarian disaster”. Critical infrastructure, including the sewage system, has been badly damaged by months of fighting and “there is no central water, gas or electricity supply,” he said, adding that 80 percent of homes in the city had been damaged. Severodonetsk faces ‘humanitarian catastrophe’. UN warns of ‘starvation catastrophe’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated Thursday that he is not considering ceding territory as part of a potential peace deal with Russia. Ukraine’s fierce resistance to Russia emboldened Zelensky, who has since repeatedly played down the idea of allowing Moscow to redraw its borders and annex territory it has seized during the fighting. “The Ukrainians are not ready to hand over their territories as new territories of the Russian Federation,” Zelensky told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, shaking his head as he spoke. “This is our land. We’ve always said that and we’ll never give it up.” Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak recently listed Ukraine’s terms for peace with Russia, including a ceasefire, the return of abducted citizens and the withdrawal of Russian troops from the entire country. Despite Putin’s prowess, the Russian military faces significant long-term challenges. International sanctions are hurting Moscow’s ability to replenish its arsenal, forcing Russia to turn into a second-hand economy dependent on poor substitutes. Russia is increasingly determined to make its own goods and components — even if that means a return to import substitution policies that yielded a huge, if globally uncompetitive, industrial complex before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Russians face prospects of Soviet-style shortages as sanctions bite The Kremlin is also trying to find experienced fighters after losing many troops earlier in the invasion. The Kremlin has so far refused to order a general mobilization of army-age soldiers, saying such a move could signal the war is not going as well as portrayed in Russian media. Instead, the military has begun a campaign to expand the ranks of active-duty soldiers who have signed voluntary contracts from people who qualify and are trying to reactivate reservists. Russia’s military ramps up recruitment as steep casualties thin ranks Even as the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that troops fighting in Ukraine’s Donbas region would temporarily halt military operations to “replenish their combat capabilities,” a hail of Russian rockets fell on towns and villages across Ukraine , killing several civilians and injuring many others. according to local leaders. Despite the appearance that the invasion is not going as smoothly for Russia as its leaders intended, Putin suggested that the invading forces still had more to unleash on Ukraine. “Everyone should know that to a large extent, we haven’t even started anything seriously,” Putin told parliament leaders. “The march of history is unstoppable and the efforts of the collective West to impose its version of world order are doomed to failure.” On whether peace remains possible, he said it was not impossible – but also issued a warning to Western countries. “We do not refuse peace negotiations, but those who refuse should know that the more they refuse, the more difficult it will be to negotiate,” Putin said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov echoed Putin’s sentiments on Friday, saying the Russian president had “edited statements heard from Western countries” about how the invasion of Russia would go. “Putin just reminded that … Russia’s capabilities are so great in this regard that only a small part of it is now involved in a special military operation,” Peskov said, according to Russian state media. “And therefore, all these Western statements are literally absurd. They are absurd and only add grief to the Ukrainian people.” Reis Thebault, Mary Ilyushina and Anthony Faiola contributed to this report.
