PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin has warned the West against underestimating Russia, saying it is ‘impossible’ to defeat his country in Ukraine, but that Moscow does not intend to expand the war to Poland and Latvia.
In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Putin said Western leaders have now acknowledged the futility of attempting to impose a strategic defeat on Russia.
‘Up until now, there has been the uproar and screaming about inflicting a strategic defeat to Russia on the battlefield,’ Putin said during the rare more than two-hour interview.
‘But now they are apparently coming to realise that it is difficult to achieve, if possible, at all. In my opinion, it is impossible by definition,’ he added.
Putin called on the United States to ‘make an agreement’ with Russia in order to end the war.
‘Wouldn’t it be better to negotiate with Russia? Make an agreement. Already understanding the situation that is developing today, realising that Russia will fight for its interests to the end,’ he said. ‘We are ready for this dialogue,’ he said.
The interview with Carlson which came ahead of the second anniversary of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine was the first one-on-one interview of Putin by someone from the Western media since 2019.
Former US Marine Corps intelligence officer William Scott Ritter Jr. called the current phase of the Ukraine-Russia conflict a NATO-Russian phase.
Putin stated that he had no interest in Poland or Latvia but would send its troops if Poland attacked Russia.
‘Only in one case, if Poland attacks Russia. Why? Because we have no interest in Poland, Latvia, or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We simply don’t have any interest,’ he said.
Putin dedicated a significant portion of the interview to expressing his dissatisfaction with Ukraine’s actions, stating that Russia had come close to reaching an agreement to cease hostilities during talks in Istanbul in April 2022.
However, he said, Ukraine backed out of the deal once Russian troops withdrew from the vicinity of Kiev.
‘Well now let them think how to reverse the situation,’ he said. ‘We’re not against it. It would be funny if it were not so sad that. This endless mobilisation in Ukraine, the hysteria, the domestic problems, sooner or later it will result in an agreement.’
He also cited US Congress, where Republicans are displaying a growing hesitancy to continue supporting Ukraine through the provision of weaponry and other forms of military assistance.
‘I will tell you what we are saying on this matter and what we are conveying to the US leadership. If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons,’ he said.
Upon being asked about the possible outcome of the US polls scheduled to be held in November, Putin indicated little change.
‘You just asked me if another leader comes and changes something? It is not about the leader. It is not about the personality of a particular person,’ he said.
- A Syrian military source says Syria’s air defences have shot down two drones that were launched from Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Syria’s state news agency SANA quoted a military source as saying that the country’s air defences shot down two drones in the west of Damascus on Friday.
According to the report, the drones came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
‘At around 2.10pm, two drones violated Syria’s airspace from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan. Our air defence systems confronted them, and they were downed in the west of Damascus,’ the source said.
Earlier, Syrian state media reported that the air defences were responding to ‘hostile targets’ in the vicinity of Damascus.
It was not clear who was behind the attack, but Israel has been using the occupied Golan Heights as a launchpad for its acts of military aggression against the Arab nation since it occupied the territory in 1967, when the regime launched a large-scale war against the regional Arab states, including Syria.
The attacks intensified after 2011, when Syria found itself in the grip of all-out foreign-backed militancy and terrorism.
The regime has been also using the occupied territory to provide safe passage and medical treatment for the anti-Syria Takfiri terrorists, who would flee there from the Syrian military’s counter-terrorism operations.
The Israeli attacks further escalated following the Tel Aviv regime’s bloody onslaught against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 27,947 Palestinians and injured more than 67,459 others.
Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble in Gaza, which is under ‘complete siege’ by Israel.
- The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has strongly condemned the recent US strikes against several sites in Iraq and Syria, stressing that Washington is pouring ‘oil on the fire’ in the region.
Hamas made the remarks in a statement on Saturday, after the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that its forces have struck more than 85 targets with numerous aircraft during overnight raids on localities in Iraq and Syria.
The resistance group went on to say that the US ‘bears full responsibility for the repercussions of this aggressive attack on Iraq and Syria’.
‘Those who pour oil on the fire, we assure you that the region will not find stability, nor peace until the Zionist (Israeli) aggression, genocidal crimes and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip ceases,’ it added.
The Syrian Defence Ministry has blasted deadly strikes by the US occupation forces against a number of sites in Iraq and Syria, saying Washington’s assault is aimed at reviving the Daesh terrorist group in the two neighbouring countries.
Earlier in the day, US occupation forces targeted positions in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr and the city of al-Bukamal near the Iraqi border. They also targeted the cities of al-Qa’im and Akashat near the Syrian border in Iraq’s western province of al-Anbar.
In a statement on Friday, US President Joe Biden said the strikes were the first in a series of actions by Washington in response to a drone attack that killed three American soldiers and left about 40 others injured in an occupation base near the Jordan-Syria border earlier in the week.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of anti-terror fighters, claimed responsibility for the drone strike in a statement published on its Telegram channel.
Iraqi resistance forces have conducted dozens of strikes on the US-run military installations in both Iraq and Syria amid growing anti-US sentiments in the region over Washington’s support for the Israeli genocidal campaign in Gaza.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm in response to Tel Aviv’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
Since the start of the aggression, Israel has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by the Gaza Health Ministry.
