Vladimir Putin: Russia can’t be isolated, sanctions haven’t worked

New Delhi, April 12

After a week of silence, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday expressed confidence that Russia would achieve its war aims in Ukraine and said “that the blitzkrieg on which our foes were counting did not work” in a reference to a cascade of economic sanctions announced by the West.

“We don’t intend to be isolated. It is impossible to severely isolate anyone in the modern world, especially such a vast country as Russia,” he said.

Putin described the images and footage of bodies strewn in the Ukrainian town of Bucha as fake and compared it to the West claiming in the past that Syria’s Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons in attacks on Islamic militants. “It’s the same kind of fake scene in Bucha,” he said. Describing the situation in Ukraine as a tragedy, Putin said Russia had no choice but to fight because it had to defend the Russian speakers of eastern Ukraine and prevent its neighbour from becoming an anti-Russian springboard.

In his first public appearance after the Russian withdrawal from the vicinity of Kyiv, Putin told Russian space staff that “there is no doubt that the goals will be achieved…. Absolutely. I don’t have any doubt at all”. Putin was shown by state TV to be visiting Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East on the day 61 years ago when Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel in space.

Drawing an analogy with Gagarin’s first space flight, Putin said, “The sanctions were total, the isolation was complete but the Soviet Union was still first in space.”

The Russian economy is forecast to contract by more that 10 per cent in 2022, the worst since the fall of the Soviet Union.

UK warns Russia against chemical weapons

London: All options would be on the table if chemical weapons were used in Ukraine by Russia, British armed forces minister James Heappey said on Tuesday. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Monday that Britain was working with its partners to verify the details of reports that Russian forces may have used chemical agents in an attack on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. reuters