Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin has made a rare admission of his country's military challenges in the 10-month-old war in Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited a key city ...

The city’s capture by Russia would increase Prigozhin’s political standing as he seeks a more prominent position in the country’s decision-making process. Russia and Ukraine have recently moved troops from the Kherson region and elsewhere to reinforce their efforts, with both sides believed to be suffering heavy casualties. Prigozhin has previously fiercely criticised the Russian defence ministry for its performance in Ukraine and has lauded Wagner as the country’s most capable fighting force. “It seems to me that the Bakhmut heroes should get the same that every person gets,” Zelenskiy said in a video posted by the local Freedom TV channel while handing out awards to Ukrainian soldiers. Earlier this month, the Russian leader said the conflict in Ukraine could turn into a “long-term process”, after Moscow was forced to abandon some of the territories it annexed illegally in September, notably fleeing the city of Kherson. [Yevgeny Prigozhin](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/07/russias-private-military-contractor-wagner-comes-out-of-the-shadows-in-ukraine-war), who is believed to have recruited thousands of Russian convicts to help with the storming of the city.

Comments come after Kyiv renews calls for more weapons as Russian drones hit energy targets.

No casualties have been reported in the capital. “I am not optimistic about the possibility of effective peace talks in the immediate future. Thirty out of 35 drones were shot down above Ukraine, the country’s air force said on its Telegram channel. Speaking with Russian security agencies operating in Ukraine late on Monday during Moscow’s Security Services Day, he said: “Yes, it is difficult for you now. On The Ground [Vladimir Putin](/topic/vladimir-putin) has said the situation in four areas in [Ukraine](/topic/ukraine) that [Moscow](/topic/moscow) annexed is “extremely difficult”.

In September, Vladimir Putin annexed four territories - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhia - as part of an illegal land grab of 15 per cent of Ukraine's ...

The FSB, Russia’s domestic security service, said he had acted “on the orders” of Ukrainian military intelligence starting in 2020. His job at the time of his arrest in 2021 was not disclosed but he was convicted by a civilian not military court. "Today’s rapidly changing global situation and the emergence of new threats and challenges impose high demands on the entire system of Russia’s security agencies,” he told his domestic and foreign agents. [Vladimir Putin](https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/vladimir-putin) has admitted to failing his mission to secure the illegally annexed regions of [Ukraine](https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/russia-ukraine-war) as he ordered his [ruthless security apparatus](https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/whistleblower-russias-feared-fsb-service-28279305) scour [Russia](https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/vultures-circling-vladimir-putin-aide-28760965) for enemies. Putin will use his security agencies to force recruits into the military - and prevent them fleeing abroad as many did after his first wave of mobilisation in September, it was claimed. The despot told his security operatives: “The situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, [and] in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is extremely difficult.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree making Sambo Day an annual celebration in the country every November 16.

November 16 is a date of significance, as the USSR Sports Council included sambo on the recognised sports list on that day in 1938. It is said, according to official Russian state news agency TASS, this was done to "popularise and develop" the sport, as published in a document yesterday. It was developed in the Soviet Union during the 1930s.

Televised meeting with Shoigu, Surovikin and Gerasimov likely a bid to 'demonstrate collective responsibility', says Ministry of Defence.

Soldiers, officers and volunteers are showing outstanding examples of courage and self-denial on the front line.” Capturing Bakhmut would sever Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press on toward key Ukrainian strongholds elsewhere in Donetsk. “Yes, it’s difficult for you,” he said, acknowledging that the situation in the regions is “extremely difficult”, before adding: “Your duty is to do all that is needed to ensure their safety and protection of rights and freedoms.” “Since May, the occupiers have been trying to break our Bakhmut, but time goes by and Bakhmut is already breaking not only the Russian army, but also the Russian mercenaries who came to replace the wasted army of the occupiers,” he said, in a reference to mercenaries from the Wagner Group, who are reported to be leading the Russian offensive there. Speaking as artillery rang out in the background of what he has termed “the hottest spot on the entire front line”, Mr Zelensky praised the “courage, resilience and strength” of Ukraine’s soldiers, and claimed to have passed through Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Druzhkivka to reach the city. [Andy Gregory](/author/andy-gregory) Comments [Vladimir Putin](/topic/vladimir-putin) has attempted to deflect responsibility for his ailing war in [Ukraine](/topic/ukraine) by staging a “choreographed” televised meeting with top Russian officials also involved in the invasion, the UK has suggested.

Bakhmut, about 380 miles east of Kyiv, has remained in Ukrainian hands, thwarting Moscow's goal of capturing Ukraine's entire Donbas region.

“It’s the feeling that despite everything, we are returning to a routine that we were used to,” said 24-year-old passenger Denys Kapustin. The Ukrainian governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said 19 cities and villages in the region were shelled by the Russian army over the past day. The regions are under pressure from a Ukrainian counteroffensive, as well as from Russian attacks on non-occupied cities and towns. “Your duty is to do all that is needed to ensure their safety and protection of rights and freedoms,” the Russian leader said on the national day commemorating the security agencies’ work. Capturing Bakhmut, in Donetsk, would cleave Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press on toward the cities that are key Ukrainian strongholds in the province. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday visited an eastern city that is the focus of some of the most intense combat of Russia’s nearly 10-month war, while Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the “courage and self-denial” of his frontline forces in Ukraine.

Even the most avid Kremlin supporters had a hard time hiding their disappointment with the Russian leader's lack of touch.

[Mr Girkin is one of the most vocal](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/08/14/ex-russian-spy-who-led-rebels-2014-ukraine-invasion-arrested/), and emerging as another challenge to Mr Putin’s authority. Mr Prigozhin, a former petty criminal known as Putin’s chef for his time catering in the Kremlin, is said to be growing in influence, which is likely to concern Mr Putin and his grip on power. [Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the increasingly powerful Wagner mercenary group](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/11/01/putin-ally-challenges-russian-president-calling-zelensky-nice/). [paid a visit to soldiers in what is perhaps the most dangerous place across the frontline](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/12/20/president-zelensky-visits-frontline-city-bakhmut-give-awards/). [Mr Putin had dared cross the Kerch Bridge](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/12/05/ukraine-news-war-russia-latest-kherson-oil-grain-odessa/) connecting mainland Russia to Ukraine - the closest he has come to the country since he launched his invasion. One of the men leading the charge from Russia is said to be

On September 21, 2022, Vladimir Putin announced the “partial” mobilization of Russia's population in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“This, I believe, is the best way to teach people to love their homeland and to strive to be of use to it.” [announced](http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/69390) the “partial” mobilization of Russia’s population in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine. In fact, the Kremlin casts the Soviet people of the 1940s as role models for today’s younger generations, emphasizing themes of sacrifice, debt, and extraordinary resolve. The authors of this state program described participation in war not as “fighting” but as “performing civic duties.” The Kremlin’s understanding of patriotism and “love for the Motherland” is also bound largely to ideas of citizenship and sacred duty. Whatever federal officials say about the importance of young people today, the authorities’ philosophy is clear: so long as they’re serving the state, Russia’s youth are expendable. Officials are also positioning youth groups like Yunarmiya and Victory Volunteers as combatants in a memory war while participants are too young to fight in Russia’s actual wars. Beyond such schemes to develop physical skills, students are also being co-opted into “performing” some aspects of duty in supportive roles. In response to Putin’s mobilization call, [anti-mobilization protests](https://www.ft.com/content/6b694942-3501-479e-9b6a-0eabd856b45c) sprung up in various regions of Russia, with droves of men leaving the country on foot through Georgia, Finland, and Kazakhstan. Facing jail time, some who fit the mobilization guidelines fled the country, while others said they would [go to prison](https://news.sky.com/story/if-i-have-to-ill-go-to-jail-the-russians-who-refuse-to-fight-in-putins-war-12707101) before taking up arms. We see this annually, on May 9, when the state glorifies loyalty and sacrifice, venerating the Soviet soldiers and civilians whose contributions won the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany. Since at least the 1980s, the military in Russia has faced numerous recruitment issues.

Vladislav Inozemtsev, director of the Russian Centre for Post-Industrial Society Research, says a palace coup would end the 'meat grinder' war against Ukraine.

[check our news page](https://metro.co.uk/news/). The law doesn’t help. [Mediazona](https://meduza.io/en/news/2022/12/09/bbc-and-mediazona-confirm-10-000-russian-soldiers-dead-in-ukraine). [ Putin’s partial mobilisation policy reignited anti-war efforts](https://metro.co.uk/2022/09/21/russia-ukraine-war-more-than-800-arrests-after-protests-erupt-17427028/). [ Kyiv makes gains in the fight](https://metro.co.uk/2022/12/21/defiant-zelensky-visits-city-putin-yearns-to-capture-17972160/), an increasingly frantic Putin has begun to acknowledge Russia is flailing at the front lines. [Ukraine](https://metro.co.uk/tag/ukraine/?ico=auto_link_news_P2_LNK1).

The only prospect for an end to the war in Ukraine is a coup against Putin, according to Vladislav Inozemtsev, director of the Russian Centre for ...

But any hopes of a mass uprising to topple Putin were forlorn Putin is pictured at the Kremlin, Moscow, December 20 The war in Ukraine will only end if Putin is removed from power in a palace coup, Vladislav Inozemtsev (pictured), an expert on Russian political science said The only prospect for an end to the 'meat grinder' war in Ukraine is a coup against Putin, according to an expert on the Kremlin. This is the only prospect for an end to the 'meat grinder' war in - The war in Ukraine will only end if Putin is removed in a coup, an expert says

Is Ukraine Vladimir Putin's Vietnam? Will Putin's "special military operation" become a quagmire that eviscerates Russia's army and ultimately leads to its ...

The Vietnam War was regarded by the Kennedy-Johnson administration as a vital national interest to prevent what was popularly viewed in America as the Sino-Soviet, godless monolithic threat of global communism that had to be stopped. While the battle in Ukraine may be headed toward deadlock, one aspect of the Vietnam War could prove determinant. As that war bogged down, even though the United States won virtually every battle it fought, with huge "body counts" of enemy dead, Hanoi would not quit. However, many of the errors Lyndon Johnson and his administration committed in Vietnam have been repeated by Putin and Russia in Ukraine. In 1991, after the Soviet Union imploded, along with other former Soviet republics, Ukraine became independent and the Russian Federation replaced the former USSR. Or will Putin continue that war, no matter the cost, expecting that Russia's advantages in size and mass will overcome Ukraine's heroic resistance?

President Vladimir Putin called for an increase in surveillance in his comments to mark Security Services Day in Russia on Tuesday.

Russia says it is waging a 'special military operation' in Ukraine to rid it of nationalists and protect Russian-speaking communities. On Monday, Putin made his first visit to Belarus since 2019, where he and his counterpart extolled ever-closer ties at a news conference late in the evening but hardly mentioned Ukraine. 'The level of the military threat is increasing, but we are taking adequate measures,' he was quoted as saying by the defence ministry on Telegram. They have failed to gain ground and earlier this month, Putin said the war could be a 'long process'. Western countries have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia and the rouble slumped to an over seven-month low against the dollar on Tuesday after the [Kyiv](/news/kiev/index.html) renewed calls for more weapons after Russian drones hit energy targets in a third air strike on power facilities in six days.

The voices talking up the danger of nuclear war include high-profile figures, most notably former President Donald Trump, who are broadly sympathetic to Putin ...

If Putin were to use even one nuclear warhead in Ukraine, he would overturn the entire rationale of when and how nuclear weapons would ever be used. If it now becomes policy that a nuclear-armed state can use nuclear weapons to try to secure territorial expansion and conquest, then the entire edifice of global nonproliferation efforts collapses. [told the Russian defense minister](https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nukes-must-be-off-the-table-says-india-amid-russia-drills-101666808834304.html) that any use of nuclear weapons must be taken off the table. Regardless, Putin is de-emphasizing the idea of a Russian nuclear strike on Ukraine. Out of concern about the issue, Modi [has also refused](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-09/modi-to-skip-annual-summit-with-putin-over-ukraine-nuke-threats?leadSource=uverify%20wall) to schedule the annual summit that Indian leaders typically have with their Russian counterparts. At [an October rally](https://www.businessinsider.com/deal-with-russia-made-under-nuke-threats-could-be-dangerous-2022-10), Trump declared, “We must demand the immediate negotiation of a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine”—which is to say, a deal that Putin finds acceptable—“or we will end up in World War III and there will be nothing left of our planet.” Around the time that the Russians were preparing to abandon Kherson, which is among the largest of the Ukrainian cities that have fallen under Russian control since February and sits in a province only recently annexed by Moscow, Putin’s most important international partners were demanding an end to his irresponsible saber-rattling. The Russia expert and former Trump adviser Fiona Hill [told Politico](https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/10/17/fiona-hill-putin-war-00061894) that Putin “plays the egos of big men” such as Musk, and worried that the Russian leader was using Musk as a messenger. More recently, as Russia’s military failures raised the possibility that Ukraine might have the strength to retake Crimea—internationally recognized Ukrainian territory that Russia seized and annexed in 2014—Cummings [appearance in Washington](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/20/zelensky-congress-washington/) underscores, the U.S. The voices talking up the danger of nuclear war include high-profile figures, most notably former President Donald Trump, who are broadly sympathetic to Putin and share his contempt for the democratic West’s multinational military and economic structures. The logical upshot of these claims was that the United States and its European allies should try to prevent a dangerous escalation essentially by selling Ukraine out—that is, by curtailing military support and ultimately forcing it to accommodate Russia’s aggression.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the military will continue to work on the “combat readiness” of nuclear forces in relation to the ...

During the defence meeting, he also proposed an additional 1.5 million troops to be deployed in Ukraine as part of a boost to their efforts. And this process, of course, we will build up on," Putin said during a televised meeting according to AFP. Putin had previously made it clear that Russia will not hesitate in using nuclear weapons – but only in response.

President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the Russian army must learn from and fix the problems it had suffered in Ukraine, promising to give the ...

To a certain extent they succeeded, and pushed us to the line where we are now." He said Russia was accelerating the deployment of modern weapons. 21, saying 5,937 soldiers had been killed. Nearly 10 months on from its Feb. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu read out a report to Putin in which he said Russia's forces were actively destroying Ukraine's military potential and accused the West of trying to "drag out" the conflict. "We have no funding restrictions.

In an interview with RFE/RL, New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker discusses the response of the Biden administration to the war in Ukraine ...

Baker: I think, broadly, it was hoping and thinking that Putin was really going to be a friend, that he was going to be a Westernizer in a real way, that he really wanted to be part of the community of nations. Trump, of course, is the outlier in the sense that he openly embraced Putin, he openly said Putin was to be admired. Now that may not be a win compared to what they thought they were going to get, and Americans and Ukrainians and Europeans will certainly look at getting back to the February 24 lines as a remarkable victory [for Ukraine] over an overwhelming power. And it's the danger of spiral that gets out of control, that most worries people in the White House that I talked to. A lot of people think that was an unwise swap, that one for the other was not equivalent and…will only encourage bad actors around the world to seize Americans in order to achieve the goals that they want to achieve, [or if] they want to get someone out of an American prison. Every president wants to have a better relationship with Russia, and for a while it actually kind of did produce some decent results for Obama, but of course, inevitably, alienated Putin all over again with the Libya war…. I think the calculation on the part of the administration was: Yeah, this is a lopsided deal. Baker: It's less about what I think, but what people who are experts think and what I'd say is, a lot of people who are smart about this would say that the revealing of intelligence in advance of the war, in advance of the invasion, was an unusual and effective strategy that we hadn't seen before. And I think that's partly because the Americans called them on it in advance of the invasion…. So I think that [the] revealing of the intelligence, in a way, surprised the Russians and kept them from creating this false narrative that they were the aggrieved party in some way. In an interview with RFE/RL, Baker discusses the response of the Biden administration to the war in Ukraine -- and the many miscalculations U.S. A bestselling author who is now covering his fifth administration as the White House correspondent for The New York Times, Peter Baker was a reporter in Moscow in the early days of the presidency of Vladimir Putin, who came to power in 2000.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has been to meet soldiers in Bakhmut – the town Vladimir Putin has tried to capture for months.

And the continued bombardment of Luhansk has left the province on the verge of catastrophe, governor Serhiy Haidai said. [Ukraine](https://metro.co.uk/tag/ukraine/?ico=auto_link_news_P2_LNK1) is proud of you. And Mr Zelensky said mercenaries in Moscow’s notorious Wagner Group have failed to turn the tide there after the regular Russian army suffered huge losses. [Ukraine](https://metro.co.uk/tag/ukraine/?ico=auto_link_news_P3_LNK1) but he said at their summit: ‘You know, the two of us are co-aggressors, the most harmful and toxic people on this planet. I am proud of you. [Volodymyr Zelensky](https://metro.co.uk/tag/volodymyr-zelenskyy/?ico=auto_link_news_P1_LNK1) has been to meet soldiers in Bakhmut – the front-line town Vladimir Putin has tried without success to capture for months.

President Vladimir Putin said Russia has “no limitations” on military spending for the war in Ukraine, as he urged the army to deliver on his declared goals ...

Putin claims 'Satan II' hypersonic missile will be ready for deployment soon in speech to military chiefs · Leader says no financial limits on military spending, ...

There were also references to unspecified problems in the military in Mr Putin’s address – and he said that constructive criticism should not be ignored. to a certain extent they succeeded, and pushed us to the line where we are now.” He said that it could be achieved without militarising the economy and that reforms will not undermine the quality of social services for his country’s people. The leader added that 150,000 of the reservists were deployed to combat zones, while the rest were undergoing training. The president said that the combat readiness of the country’s nuclear forces must be assured, while the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, added that the process of getting new weapon supplies to troops has been sped up. Mr Shoigu also proposed raising the age range for mandatory Russian military service to cover Russian citizens aged 21 to 30.

Russia is expected to increase military spending over the next two years, as it prepares for a long and costly war.

Earlier this month, he said the conflict could turn into a “long-term process”, and the Kremlin shows no intention of climbing down from its maximalist goals of regime change in Ukraine. It means they are trying to start the next wave of the offensive probably in February, like last year. “The [draftees] do a minimum of three months to prepare. This conflict was inevitable – better to have it today than tomorrow.” Everything,” the Russian president added. Speaking in Moscow at the closing session of the expanded board of the ministry of defence, Putin said there were no “funding restrictions” for the military.