Putin affirms that Russia will reject Western proposals that aren’t in line with his long stated objectives in Ukraine, and continue to fight until the West comes around. From Simplicius at simplicius76.substack.com:
In the aftermath of China’s Victory Day parade, Putin made some new interesting comments before setting off back to Russia. The most noteworthy was that if no agreement can be reached, then Russia will simply accomplish its goals via military means:
[see linked article for video clip]
But in some ways the more interesting and pregnant statement was the following, which came in response to a question about how Russian troops feel about the so-called negotiations and ending the war with a ceasefire—one implied to be premature, by the reporter:
[see linked article for video clip]
Putin responds that the overwhelming majority of Russian troops on the front want Russia to fulfill all of its SMO objectives. The reason this is particularly noteworthy is because the question here presented an opportunity for Putin to equivocate or temporize if his intention truly was to lead the conflict to an early and incomplete conclusion. He could have exaggerated the reality with a bit of a white lie, perhaps using ‘diplomatic’ and political language to imply that Russian troops would be happy with a ceasefire in order to support his own underhanded plans.
But instead, he gave the raw truth, which should come as a slap in the face of critics and doomers who portray Putin as bowing to pressure in weakness, or things of that like. By so openly revealing the sentiments of real Russian troops he puts the onus on himself to now fulfill the conflict’s primary mandates.
Keep grinding and stick with the goals of the SMO.
This is the way.
Allies will supply the cable and other needs.
Like the anti-drone laser.