Putin says the West’s ‘attempt to have global dominance’ is coming to an end 

Vladimir Putin said today that the West’s ‘attempt to have global dominance’ is coming to an end as he warned it is trying to ‘cancel Russia’ with an ‘economic blitzkreig’ of sanctions. 

The Russian President, speaking in a televised government meeting in Moscow, said that keeping Russia in check was a long-term policy of the West, and that its economic measures were short-sighted as ‘most countries do not support sanctions’. 

Putin claimed that the conflict had merely been a pretext for the West to impose sanctions because ‘they just don’t want a strong and sovereign Russia’. 

‘The West doesn’t even bother to hide the fact that its aim is to damage the entire Russian economy, every Russian,’ he said, adding that the West’s actions would ‘only strengthen’ Moscow. 

He said Russia was ready to discuss Ukraine’s neutral status in talks aimed at ending hostilities, but it would still meet the objectives of its military operation, which was ‘going to plan’. 

But he also told Russians, in words ironically reminiscent of Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky’s speeches, that ‘we are fighting for our sovereignty and the future of our children’.    

It is the latest in the propaganda pushed by Moscow in a bid to justify their invasion of Ukraine to Russian citizens – including claims the war is about ‘de-nazifying’ the country and preventing a genocide of minorities waged by Kyiv.    

If the West thought that Russia would step back, it did not understand Russia, Putin said on the 21st day of the war against Ukraine.

He claimed the the operation in Ukraine is unfolding ‘successfully, in strict accordance with pre-approved plans’ and warned the West is trying to stoke up civil conflict.  

In his most explicit acknowledgment of the pain inflicted by Western sanctions, he said inflation and unemployment would rise, but promised support to families with children.  

Structural changes to the economy would be needed, Putin said, as he accused the West of trying to ‘squeeze us, to put pressure on us, to turn us into a weak, dependent country.’

Meanwhile Russian state TV Rossiya aired a segment on battle plans to invade the Baltic states, showing a white board with potential routes on live television.  

It comes as new allegations of war crimes were hurled at Putin after video emerged that purported to show at least 10 Ukrainian civilians gunned down while they were queueing for bread outside Chernihiv.

New drone footage appeared to show Russian soldiers executing a lone Ukrainian civilian as he held his hands up to surrender on a highway west of Kyiv last week.

Russian authorities have repeatedly insisted that their forces are only targeting strategic military locations and are not waging war on the civilian population of Ukraine but it comes after two residential apartment blocks in west Kyiv were hit in shelling overnight. 

Moscow’s men started pounding the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia early on Wednesday, hours after around 20,000 refugees arrived through a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol. 

Reports also emerged overnight that Russian forces in Mariupol had rounded up 400 people from houses neighbouring the city’s hospital number two, along with 100 doctors and patients who were already inside, and were refusing to let them leave in a bid to use civilians as human shields. 

Battles also continued to rage in cities like Mariupol, Kharkhiv and Mykolaiv, as well as in suburban towns just outside Kyiv on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after Putin ordered an all out invasion of its western neighbour.  

But though Russia’s ground advance on Kyiv has stalled Moscow’s men have kept up a sustained bombardment of the capital and other cities across the country as the the number of people fleeing Ukraine amid Europe’s heaviest fighting since World War II passed 3 million. 

The UN’s human rights body says 691 civilians have been killed and 1,143 injured, but acknowledges those numbers were likely an undercount. 

But there appeared to be some movement on peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia as both sides made statements on the talks.  

Ukraine on Wednesday demanded guarantees that international forces will ‘prevent attacks’ in the future and rejected Russia’s proposal for Kyiv to become ‘neutral’ like Austria or Sweden as peace talks to end the war continued.  

‘Ukraine is now in a direct state of war with Russia. As a result, the model can only be ‘Ukrainian’ and only on legally verified security guarantees,’ its top negotiator Mikhailo Podolyak said in comments published by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office.

He called for a legally binding security agreement, signed by international partners, who would ‘not stand aside in the event of an attack on Ukraine, as they do today.’

The Kremlin earlier Wednesday said that a neutral Ukraine along the lines of Sweden or Austria was being discussed at talks with Kyiv to end three weeks of fighting in Ukraine.

‘This is an option that is being discussed now and that can be considered as a compromise,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

His comments came after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said neutrality was taking centre stage at the talks and that Moscow and Kyiv were ‘close to agreeing’ the wording of an agreement on neutrality. 

Zelensky, speaking in his early morning address on Wednesday, had said that peace talks with Russia were sounding ‘more realistic’ and that a deal could be struck with Vladimir Putin within one or two weeks because Moscow’s forces will run out of fresh troops and supplies by then.   

The assessment echoes that of UK defence sources who say that Kyiv has Moscow ‘on the run’ and the Russian army could be just two weeks from ‘culmination point’ – after which ‘the strength of Ukraine’s resistance should become greater than Russia’s attacking force.’