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US ‘prolonging’ Ukraine's agony: Vladimir Putin lists Washington's mistakes
Russia-Ukraine War: The Russian leader, who was on a visit to China, briefed president Xi Jinping "in some detail" about Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the United States was wading deeper into the Ukraine conflict and making a mistake by providing Kyiv with long-range ATACMS missiles. The Russian leader, who was on a visit to China, briefed president Xi Jinping "in some detail" about Ukraine saying that "external factors" and "common threats" served only to strengthen Russia-Chinese cooperation.
The Kremlin chief said that Washington's decision to supply the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), whose use Kyiv confirmed, "just prolongs the agony" for Ukraine.
"Firstly, this of course causes harm and creates an additional threat. Secondly, we will of course be able to repel these attacks. War is war," Vladimir Putin said, adding, "But most importantly, it fundamentally lacks the capacity to change the situation on the line of contact at all ... This is another mistake by the United States."
Read more: New missiles won't help Ukraine, says Vladimir Putin in China
Ukraine had repeatedly asked Washington for ATACMS to help it attack and disrupt supply lines, air bases and rail networks in Russian-occupied territory.
"A mistake of a larger scale, as yet invisible but still of great importance, is that the United States is becoming more and more personally drawn into this conflict. And let no one say that they have nothing to do with this. We believe they do," Vladimir Putin said, noting that the United States had sent two aircraft carrier groups to the Mediterranean in response to the explosion of violence between Israel and Hamas.
The Russian president said that it was good that the West was starting to talk about the need to solve the Ukraine crisis by peaceful means, though he did not cite examples. Russia has long said it is willing to negotiate, but only if Kyiv accepts “new realities”- Moscow's occupation of more than a sixth of Ukraine.
