No disappointments in Ukraine war, Putin insists as Russia prepares for Kherson battle

President Vladimir Putin has insisted that Russia’s war in Ukraine was going to plan as both sides prepared for a key battle in Kherson in Ukraine’s south.

Putin, addressing a conference in Moscow on Thursday, also played down the prospect of a nuclear stand off with the West. But he accused the West of inciting the war and playing a “dangerous, bloody and dirty” game that was sowing chaos.

Western dominance over world affairs was coming to an end and “ahead is probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and, at the same time, important decade since the end of World War Two,” Putin said.

Despite his positive assessment of Russia’s progress, on the ground in Kherson, Russian and Ukrainian troops were preparing for what could be one of the most consequential battles of the war.

One of four partially occupied provinces that Russia declared annexed last month, the region controls both the only land route to the Crimea peninsula – seized by Russia in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnipro river that bisects Ukraine.

Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed leader of Crimea, said work had been completed on moving residents seeking to flee Kherson to regions of Russia ahead of an expected Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Ukraine has accused Moscow of forcibly removing some people and recruiting others to fight against their will. Its general staff said what it called Russia’s so-called evacuation was continuing, with hospital and business equipment removed and extra Russian forces deployed in empty homes.

0:43 Russia would make ‘incredibly serious mistake’ to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine: Biden

Reuters was not able to verify battlefield reports.

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Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, visited Kherson and the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, Aksyonov said on Telegram.

The United Nations is seeking to establish a safety zone around the plant, which lies near the frontline, due to fears of a disaster.

The conflict began on Feb. 24 when Russian forces invaded. In recent weeks, Russia has unleashed a wave of missile and drone strikes, hitting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and forcing power cuts in Kyiv and other places, officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday the attacks “will not break us.”

“To hear the enemy’s anthem on our land is scarier than the enemy’s rockets in our sky. We are not afraid of the dark,” he said in a video address.

Ukrainian officials have said tough terrain and bad weather have made Ukraine’s advances in Kherson and the east slower than its swift pushback of Russian forces in the northeast last month and Russia’s hasty retreat from Kyiv early in the war.

Putin made no mention of Russia’s battlefield setbacks at the Moscow conference. When asked if there had been any disappointments in the past year, he answered simply: “No.”

Putin said Russian aims had not changed.

Russia is fighting to protect the people of Donbas, Putin said, referring to an industrial region that comprises Donetsk and Luhansk – provinces in Ukraine’s east he proclaimed annexed.

3:29 Moscow insists West and Ukraine plotting ‘dirty bomb’ scenario to smear Russia

In Luhansk, Russian forces have tried to break through defenses in Bilohorivka but were beaten back, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television on Thursday.

Fighting has been going on in the Donbas since 2014 between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatists.

Putin and other officials have repeatedly said Russia could use “all available means” to protect its territorial integrity, remarks interpreted in the West as implicit threats to use nuclear arms in fighting over parts of Ukraine that Russia says it has annexed.

Putin played down a nuclear standoff with the West, insisting Russia had not threatened to use nuclear weapons but had only responded to nuclear “blackmail” from Western leaders.

U.S. President Joe Biden expressed skepticism, asking in an interview with NewsNation: “If he has no intention, why does he keep talking about it?”