LONDON (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin mentioned on Thursday that if the West needed to defeat Russia on the battlefield, it was welcome to try.
Russia was simply getting began in Ukraine, Putin mentioned in a hawkish speech to parliamentary leaders, and the prospects for any negotiation would develop dimmer the longer the battle dragged on.
“Today we hear that they need to defeat us on the battlefield. What are you able to say, let them try,” Putin mentioned in televised remarks to parliamentary leaders. “We have heard many occasions that the West wants to combat us to the final Ukrainian. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian folks, however it appears that evidently the whole lot is heading in direction of this.
“Everyone ought to know that, by and huge, we’ve not began something but in earnest,” he added. “At the identical time, we do not reject peace talks. But those that reject them ought to know that the additional it goes, the more durable it is going to be for them to negotiate with us.”
(Reporting by ReutersModifying by Leslie Adler)
