The Kremlin has said it had no choice but to continue its military offensive on Ukraine, as Moscow rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that Russia was a “paper tiger”.
The comments come a day after Mr Trump said Ukraine could win back all of its territory from Russia, which he characterised as a “paper tiger” with a failing economy – a major pivot in his stance on the three-and-a-half-year conflict.
“We are continuing our special military operation to ensure our interests and achieve the goals,” set by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, using Moscow’s term for its assault on Ukraine.
“We are doing this for both the present and the future of our country. For many generations to come. Therefore, we have no alternative,” he added in a radio interview with a Russian newspaper.
He also pushed back against Mr Trump’s “paper tiger” remark, but conceded the economy – slowing after three years of rapid growth and with stubborn inflation – was facing some headwinds.
“Russia maintains its macroeconomic stability,” Mr Peskov said, adding: “Yes, Russia is experiencing tensions and problems in various sectors of the economy.”
The Kremlin said that Russian troops were advancing on all fronts in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump spoke at the UN summit in New York yesterday
The Kremlin also offered a downbeat assessment of wider efforts to boost relations between Moscow and Washington.
Russia launched its all-out offensive on Ukraine in February 2022, when its forces tried to capture the capital Kyiv and President Putin publicly called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to be toppled.
A rapprochement ushered in when Mr Trump returned to the White House in January has yielded “close to zero” results, Mr Peskov said.
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“This track is sluggish, very sluggish,” he said of the efforts to reset ties.
Moscow has sought to cast negotiations with the United States as broader than just the Ukraine conflict, trying to promote possible economic and diplomatic cooperation between the two nuclear powers.
It comes as a security source said Ukraine’s domestic security service carried out a drone strike on the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat petrochemical plant in central Russia’s Bashkortostan region overnight.
The strike, which sparked a fire, was the second such attack on a major industrial facility in the Russian region in a week, the source said.