Putin says state of affairs extraordinarily tough in Russian-annexed Ukrainian areas

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KYIV — President Vladimir Putin stated the state of affairs in 4 areas of Ukraine that Moscow has declared are a part of Russia was “extraordinarily tough” and ordered safety companies to step up surveillance to safe its borders and fight new threats.

Putin’s feedback made on Safety Providers Day, extensively celebrated in Russia, got here as Kyiv renewed requires extra weapons after Russian drones hit vitality targets and as fears develop that Moscow’s ally Belarus might open a brand new invasion entrance towards Ukraine.

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Putin ordered the Federal Safety Providers (FSB) to step up surveillance of Russian society and the nation’s borders to fight the “emergence of recent threats” from overseas and traitors at dwelling.

In a uncommon admission of the invasion of Ukraine not going easily, Putin cautioned in regards to the tough state of affairs in Ukraine’s areas that Moscow moved to annex in September and ordered the FSB to make sure the “security” of individuals dwelling there.

“The state of affairs within the Donetsk and Luhansk Folks’s Republics, within the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas is extraordinarily tough,” Putin stated late on Monday in feedback translated by Reuters.

In September, a defiant Putin moved to annex a swath of Ukraine — some 15% of the nation — in a Kremlin ceremony, however earlier this month, he stated the battle “is usually a lengthy course of.”

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Putin’s transfer to annex the areas was condemned by Kyiv and its Western allies as unlawful.

On Monday, Putin made his first go to to Belarus since 2019, the place he and his counterpart extolled ever-closer ties at a information convention late within the night however hardly talked about Ukraine.

Kyiv, in the meantime, was searching for extra weapons from the West after Russian “kamikaze” drones hit vitality targets early on Monday.

“Weapons, shells, new protection capabilities…every thing that can give us the flexibility to hurry up the top to this battle,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated in his night handle.

The Ukrainian navy excessive command stated their air defenses had shot down 23 of 28 drones — most over the capital Kyiv — in what was Moscow’s third air strike in six days. Russia has focused Ukraine’s energy grid, inflicting blackouts amid sub-zero temperatures.

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The “kamikaze” drones used within the assaults are cheaply produced, disposable unmanned plane that fly towards their goal earlier than plummeting at velocity and detonating on influence.

BELARUS ACTIVITY

To the northwest of Ukraine, there was fixed Russian and Belarusian navy exercise for months in Belarus, an in depth Kremlin ally that Moscow’s troops used as a launch pad for his or her abortive assault on Kyiv in February.

Putin’s journey to Minsk has stirred fears in Ukraine in regards to the broader involvement of Belarusian armed forces within the invasion. Putin and Lukashenko scarcely touched on Ukraine at a post-talks information convention, as a substitute extolling the advantages of protection and financial alignment.

Lukashenko has stated repeatedly he has no intention of sending his nation’s troops into Ukraine, the place Moscow’s invasion faltered badly with a string of battlefield retreats within the face of a significant counter-offensive.

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The Kremlin on Monday dismissed the suggestion that Putin needed to push Belarus right into a extra energetic function. The RIA Novosti information company quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying such stories have been “groundless” and “silly.”

Each Putin and Lukashenko have been additionally at pains to dismiss the thought of Russia annexing or absorbing Belarus.

“Russia has no real interest in absorbing anybody,” Putin stated.

Requested about this remark, U.S. State Division spokesperson Ned Value stated it ought to be handled because the “peak of irony,” given it was “coming from a frontrunner who’s searching for at the moment second, proper now, to violently take up his different peaceable next-door neighbor.”

FIGHTING GRINDS ON

The ten-month-old battle in Ukraine, the most important in Europe since World Battle Two, has killed tens of 1000’s of individuals, pushed tens of millions from their houses and lowered cities to ruins.

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Ukraine’s Common Workers stated Russian artillery hammered 25 cities and villages round Bakhmut and Avdiivka within the east and a number of other areas round Kupiansk, a northeastern city retaken by Ukraine in September.

It additionally stated Ukrainian air and artillery forces carried out greater than a dozen strikes on Russian troops and {hardware}, together with ammunition dumps, and shot down two helicopters.

Alexei Kulemzin, the Russian-installed mayor of town of Donetsk, stated Ukrainian shelling hit a hospital wing, together with a kindergarten, posting on Telegraph a photograph of what gave the impression to be a ready room with smashed furnishings and fittings.

Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the battlefield accounts of both aspect.

Russia says it’s waging a “particular navy operation” in Ukraine to rid it of nationalists and shield Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and the West describe the Kremlin’s actions as an unprovoked battle of aggression.

(Reporting Ronald Popeski in Winnipeg, Valentyn Ogirenko in Kyiv, Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Writing by Costas Pitas and Shri Navaratnam; Enhancing by Cynthia Osterman and Lincoln Feast.)