Although grudgingly, Vladimir Putin has admitted mistakes, both in the planning of the military campaign in Ukraine and in the lack of foresight in defending the border from enemy incursions and sabotage.

In a meeting on Tuesday in the Kremlin with Russian war correspondents and military bloggers, he pointed out that “Of course, we must protect our citizens (…), we must strengthen the security of the border (…) in At the beginning, one could have thought that the enemy would behave like this (…) and, surely, prepare better”,

And he assured that if Ukraine continues its attacks on border regions such as Belgorod, then Russia will be forced to create what it called a “sanitary zone” on the neighboring country’s territory.

“If this continues, then possibly we will have to study the question, and I say this very carefully, of creating on the territory of Ukraine a kind of sanitary zone at such a distance that it is impossible to reach our territory,” he said.

As for the drone attacks on Russian territory, he also acknowledged that missile defense is designed against planes and missiles, and that modern unmanned devices are made of light materials, including “wood”, so “they are quite difficult to detect”.

“Of course, it would have been better if it had been done on time and properly,” he said, although he was “convinced” about the defense of Moscow and other big cities.

At the beginning of May, two drones hit the dome of the Senate Palace, in the Kremlin, where the personal office of the Russian leader is located.

He also conceded that the war exposed the lack of communications equipment, guided ammunition and drones, but that the military industry has almost tripled the manufacture of weapons, production that in the case of the most demanded weapons increased tenfold.

Be that as it may, Putin considered it unnecessary to declare martial law as well as a new mobilization of reservists, measures very unpopular among the Russians.

The Russian president predicted the failure of the current Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions, and announced that Moscow is seriously considering abandoning the Black Sea grain deal.

“The enemy has not been successful in any of the sectors of the front,” Putin said, while kyiv claims to have recovered a total of seven towns since June 4, equivalent to an area of ??90 square kilometers.

Putin described as “catastrophic” the losses that Ukrainian troops are suffering in their attempt to vacate the east and south of the country, which the Western press estimated at dozens of casualties.

He estimated more than 160 tanks, 360 armored vehicles and 25-30% of the equipment supplied by the West, the weapons destroyed by Russian artillery and aviation in the last ten days.

He stressed that the “irreversible” casualties on the Ukrainian side are “almost 50%”, when under normal conditions they would be 30%.

“We have ten times less than the casualties of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” he said, and in an attack of sincerity he raised to 54 the number of Russian tanks disabled in those bloody combats.

In turn, he warned Kiev that it will not be able to resist for long with only weapons delivered by its Western allies, when its military industry does not produce “not a crumb.”

The United States “pretends that it does not fear (an escalation). Instead, there are many reasonable people who do not want to take things to a Third World War, in which there will be no winners, including the US,” he warned.

And he recalled that the Leopard 2 tanks supplied by European countries and the American Bradley armored vehicles “burn beautifully.”

As for a possible Russian offensive, he assured that “everything will depend on the potential that exists when the so-called counteroffensive ends. That is the key.”

In addition, he announced that Russia is considering withdrawing “now” from the Black Sea grain agreement sponsored by Turkey and the UN, which expires in mid-July.

“Unfortunately they have deceived us again, they did nothing to release supplies to foreign markets. I mean freight, insurance, payments, the connection of Rosseljozbank to the Swift system,” he explained.

Putin recalled that the grain agreement “had many different conditions that Westerners had to meet under the auspices of the UN.” “Nothing was done,” he stated.

Russia did not sign this agreement to favor Ukraine, “but for our friendly countries in Africa and Latin America. Because the grain must go first of all to the poorest countries,” he insisted.

The grain exported by Ukraine “could be the main source of foreign exchange” for this country, since “everything else is already practically ruined,” he said.

Although he also acknowledged that he would address this issue with the delegation of African leaders that will visit Saint Petersburg this week with a peace initiative for Ukraine.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project