Despite dragging on for 9 1/2 months, Putin has shown no signs of letting up, vowing to “consistently fight for our interests” and to “protect ourselves using all means available.”
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged Wednesday that his “special military operation” in Ukraine is taking longer than expected but said it has succeeded in seizing new territory and added that his country’s “Of course, it could be a lengthy process,” Putin said of the more than 9-month-old war that began with Russia’s invasion Feb. 24 and has displaced millions from their homes, and killed and wounded tens of thousands.
In response to an increasing influx of advanced Western weapons, economic, political and humanitarian aid to Kyiv and what he saw as Western leaders’ inflammatory statements, Putin has periodically hinted at his potential use of nuclear weapons. When a member of the Human Rights Council asked him Wednesday to pledge that Russia would not be the first to use such weapons, Putin demurred.
‘Stretch,’ who serves in the International Legion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, is honored by Ukraine's president. Russian troops have withdrawn not only from the Kyiv area and around the country’s largest city, Kharkiv, but from a large part of the Kherson region. Another problem for Putin are attacks this week against air force bases deep inside Russia. He put much of the country, especially border areas, on security alert recently, and fresh signs emerged Wednesday that Russian officials are strengthening border defensive positions.
Moscow responded with strikes by artillery, multiple rocket launchers, missiles, tanks and mortars at residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, worsening damage to the power grid. Private Ukrainian power utility Ukrenergo said temperatures in eastern areas where it was making repairs had dropped to as low as minus 17 degrees Celsius .
— The U.N.’s human rights office documented 441 killings by Russian forces in three regions, including the town of Bucha, early in the war. The head of the U.N.’s monitoring mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, said it has no information that Russia has been investigating or prosecuting alleged crimes in Ukraine, while Ukrainian authorities are struggling to do so because of the “sheer volume of allegations and forensic challenges.
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