Vladimir Putin does not give up.
Its communication strategy is clear: the Russian army is not in check, on the contrary.
The Russian president spoke on Tuesday from Vostotchny, assuring that the Russian offensive in Ukraine was continuing “calmly” and according to plan.
"Our task is to accomplish the objectives set by minimizing losses, we will act harmoniously, calmly, in accordance with the plan proposed from the start by the staff", he assured during a press conference in a cosmodrome in the Russian Far East.
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The Kremlin chief, who was with his Belarusian counterpart and ally Alexander Lukashenko, brushed aside the notion that the Russian military was struggling in the face of Ukrainian resistance and had to give up taking major cities and the capital kyiv to focus on the Donbass, in the east of the country, as some experts have analysed.
“Our actions in certain regions of Ukraine were only intended to fix (Ukrainian) forces away from Donbass, strike a blow and destroy the military infrastructure,” he assured.
The president also implied that if the Russian forces were not going faster, it was to avoid too great losses, even though the Kremlin admitted to experiencing “significant” losses without quantifying them precisely.
“I often hear the question, can we do it faster?
Yes, it is possible, but it means stepping up military operations, which unfortunately would have an effect on casualties,” he explained.
Lack of consistency from Kyiv in the talks
During this same conference, the Russian president considered that the “lack of consistency” of Ukrainian negotiators during talks with their Russian counterparts prevented reaching an agreement between kyiv and Moscow to put an end to the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
“I was informed last night that the Ukrainian side had changed something again (…) Such a lack of consistency on fundamental points creates difficulties,” he castigated.
The “fake” massacres of Boutcha
Russia systematically denies having been able to kill civilians, accusing Ukraine of using its population as a human shield.
Asked about the massacre of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Boutcha, which Ukraine and the West accuse the Russian forces of occupying this suburb of kyiv, Vladimir Putin unsurprisingly dismissed the subject.
Read alsoMassacre in Boutcha: the fragile denials of the Kremlin dissected
Comparing these accusations to those concerning the use of chemical weapons by the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the Russian head of state declared: “We have the same fake in Boutcha”.
For his part, his ally Alexander Lukashenko saw it as "a special psychological operation of the English".
“Brother” people
Earlier in the day, Vladimir Putin had described the Russian military offensive as "noble", once again claiming to have come to save the Russians of Donbass from a genocide orchestrated by Ukrainian neo-Nazis.
“There is no doubt (that the Russian goals will be fulfilled), they are absolutely clear and noble (…) the main goal is to help the people of Donbass,” he reiterated.
Putin also mocked the United States on Tuesday, saying it was ready to fight Russia "to the last Ukrainian".
The Russian president finally felt that despite the “current tragedy”, the Ukrainians were a “brother people”.