LONDON, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday his army could fight in Ukraine for a long time, but he saw “no sense” in mobilizing additional troops at this stage.
“As for the duration of the special military operation, well, of course, it can be a long process,” Putin said, using his preferred term for the Russian invasion, which began in February.
In a war-dominated televised meeting of his Human Rights Council, Putin said the Russians would “defend themselves with all means at their disposal”, claiming that Russia was seen in the West as “a country second class which has no right to exist”.
He said the risk of nuclear war was growing – the latest in a series of such warnings – but that Russia saw its arsenal as a way to fight back, not strike first.
“We haven’t gone mad, we realize what nuclear weapons are,” Putin said. “We have these means in a more advanced and modern form than any other nuclear country… But we are not going to walk around the world brandishing this weapon like a razor.”
He said there was no reason for a second mobilization at this stage, after a call-up of at least 300,000 reservists in September and October.
Putin said 150,000 of them were deployed in Ukraine: 77,000 in combat units and the rest in defensive duties. The remaining 150,000 were still in training centers.
“Under these conditions, talking about additional mobilization measures simply does not make sense,” he said.
Putin rarely discussed the likely duration of the war, although he boasted in July that Russia was just getting started.
Since then, Russia has been forced into deep retreats, but Putin said he has no regrets about launching what is Europe’s most devastating war since World War II.
LEGAL AFFAIRS
Putin said Russia had already achieved a ‘significant result’ with the acquisition of ‘new territories’ in Ukraine – a reference to the annexation of four partially occupied regions in September that Kyiv and most UN members have condemned as illegal.
He said Russia had made the Sea of Azov – bounded by Russia and Russian-occupied territory – its “inner sea”. He said it had been an aspiration of Peter the Great – the 17th and 18th century warrior czar to whom Putin has compared himself in the past.
Putin meets annually with his Human Rights Council, a body that critics say has allowed him to pretend to defend civil liberties while increasing repression and stamping out dissent.
He expressed outrage that the West was turning a blind eye to what he said were direct Ukrainian bombardments of residential areas in the Russian-occupied Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine suffered heavy civilian casualties throughout the war, although Russia denies targeting civilians. The United Nations human rights office said on Wednesday Russian forces killed at least 441 civilians early in their invasion, documenting attacks in dozens of towns and summary executions that may amount to war crimes. Moscow did not immediately react.
As the meeting unfolded, news emerged that former defense reporter Ivan Safronov had failed to appeal a 22-year prison sentence for treason. He was accused of betraying state secrets over defense contracts, although he maintained that all material was available from open sources.
Ilya Yashin, an opposition adviser in Moscow who has spoken out against the war, is awaiting sentencing this week under a law passed after the invasion that criminalizes the dissemination of “false information” about the armed forces. The prosecution is asking for a nine-year sentence.
Last month, Putin removed 10 council members and recruited four new ones, including Alexander Kots, a pro-war blogger and correspondent for the popular Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
Several of the ousted members had said they planned to use the meeting with Putin to raise issues such as anti-dissent laws and the listing of Kremlin critics as “foreign agents”.
Reuters reporting, writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Kevin Liffey
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