Russian President Vladimir Putin “has already lost the war” in Ukraine, his American counterpart Joe Biden said on Thursday, believing that Moscow would end up negotiating against the Ukrainian counter-offensive.
“He could end the war tomorrow, he would just have to say ‘I quit,'” the US president said during a visit to Finland celebrating the recent NATO membership of the neighboring Nordic country. Russia.
“But there is no possibility for him to win the war in Ukraine […] He’s already lost it,” Biden said, pointing to Russia’s lack of resources and economic difficulties.
Despite the lack of progress in the Ukrainian counter-offensive on the front, the American president said he was convinced that it would lead to a request for negotiations from Moscow.
“I hope, and it is my expectation, that Ukraine will make meaningful progress in its offensive and that it will lead to a negotiated settlement at some point,” the 80-year-old US leader said.
Faced with the disappointment displayed by Ukrainian President Zelensky at not having a precise timetable for his country’s accession to NATO at the alliance summit on Tuesday and Wednesday in Vilnius, Joe Biden reiterated the American promise to a membership.
“The question is not whether or not they should join NATO, [mais] when they can join. And they will join NATO, ”said the tenant of the White House.
Aerial attacks
Russia responded Thursday with a series of airstrikes on Ukraine, which injured at least four people in kyiv, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Vladimir Putin commented on Ukraine’s possible NATO membership on Thursday evening, saying he was “certain that it will not improve Ukraine’s security and that, in general, it will make the world much more vulnerable and will lead to additional tensions on the international scene”.
Speaking on Russian television on the sidelines of a technology forum, he added that “the threat of Ukraine joining” NATO was precisely “one of the reasons” for Russian military intervention in the country in February 2022.
Asked about the promises to kyiv of new weapons made by the West, in particular long-range missiles, Vladimir Putin replied that these missiles “do damage, but [que] nothing significant happens in the combat zone when they are used”.
“The delivery of new weapons will only aggravate the situation, and will make it worse for the Ukrainian side, which will only fuel the conflict,” added the Russian president.
Nuclear threat
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said that the delivery of Western F-16 fighter jets – necessary according to Kiev to fight the Russian invasion – would be considered a “nuclear” threat, these planes being able to carry the atomic weapon.
“I don’t believe there is a real prospect […] that Putin uses nuclear weapons. Not only the West, but also China and the rest of the world said: “do not go on this ground”, swept Joe Biden, alongside Finnish President Sauli Niinistö.
The Netherlands and Denmark are leading a coalition of 11 countries to train pilots on the American-made fighter jet, after a green light from Washington to do so.
Joe Biden arrived in Finland on Wednesday evening, which joined the Atlantic Alliance in April, to end the European tour he had started on Sunday evening in London.
Turning the page on five decades of forced neutrality by Russia after the Second World War and then of military non-alignment since the end of the Cold War, Finland became on April 4 the 31e member of the Atlantic Alliance.
With a new 1,300 km border with a NATO country, this entry is a major strategic setback for Moscow.
Sweden are expected to follow in the coming months after a surprise deal with Turkey on Monday in Vilnius.
“Watch what he eats”
The American president also returned to the abortive mutiny at the end of June of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, a sign of the deep divisions in the Russian military camp.
He joked about the risk of elimination of the leader of the group Evguéni Prigojine, judging that he should be “be careful what he eats”.
The American president also said he was determined to do “everything possible” to free the American journalist Evan Gershkovich, correspondent for the wall street journal imprisoned for more than 100 days in Russia, including via a “prisoner exchange”.
In addition to Mr. Niinistö, Joe Biden met Thursday in Helsinki with the leaders of the other Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland).
The US President’s visit to Finland symbolizes the abrupt reversal of relations between Washington and Moscow.
Five years ago, in the same room, then-President Donald Trump held a joint press conference with Vladimir Putin.
He had made a sensational statement, saying he believed the Russian president denied any Russian involvement in electoral manipulation in the United States, rather than the conclusions of the FBI.