Ukraine-Russia war: Putin says 'we are close to point of no return' as he launches attack on Western powers in speech (2024)

Ukrainian troops have been attending military drills near the frontline in the eastern Donetsk region.

In 2014, Russian-backed fighters seized large swathes of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions and much of the fighting is now concentrated there.

Ukrainian troops are making a major effort to end a battlefield stalemate and break through Russian defensive lines in the region.

Vladimir Putin has set out what he said were Russia's preconditions for starting peace talks with Ukraine.

He said Russia would be ready for such talks "tomorrow" if Ukrainian troops withdraw from the Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk regions and if Ukraine gave up its plans to join NATO.

If Ukraine agreed to those conditions, he said Russia would cease fire and start negotiations.

"Conditions are very simple," he said.

He continued: "As soon as Kyiv says they're ready for such a decision and start the real withdrawal of forces from these regions and officially declare rejection of plans to join NATO, from our side, immediately, literally the same minute, will come an order to stop the fire and start negotiations.

"We will do it immediately. Obviously, we will guarantee the uninterrupted and safe withdrawal of Ukrainian forces."

It should be noted that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to liberate all occupied regions from Russian control - and himself said all Russian forces must leave Ukraine as a condition for any peace deal.

Mr Putin has also said that his army's advance towards the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in 2022 was aimed at forcing Ukraine to agree to a peace deal.

He claimed there was no intention of storming Kyiv.

More now from Vladimir Putin's speech, which also included a slightly more conciliatory passage, in which he said the Westneeded to find a way to work with Russia.

In his address at Russia's foreign ministry, he said the "Western model" of global security was collapsing, and it was time to create a new and more stable system in its place.

"Obviously, we are witnessing the collapse of the Euro-Atlantic security system. Today it simply does not exist, it needs to be essentially created anew," he said.

"All this requires us, together with our partners, with all interested countries, and there are many of them, to work out our own options for ensuring security in Eurasia, proposing them then for wider international discussion."

The president said it was time to discuss a new system of security in Europe and Eurasia, and Russia was open to discussion on that with everyone, including NATO.

"It is important to proceed from the fact that the future security architecture is open to all Eurasian countries that wish to take part in its creation. 'To all' means European and NATO countries too, of course," he said.

"We live on the same continent. No matter what happens, you cannot change the geography. We will have to coexist and work together one way or another."

The "selfishness and hypocrisy of Western countries" has led to a "dangerous turn of events" and we have "come close to a point of no return", Vladimir Putin has said.

Speaking at a meeting with Russian foreign ministry officials, the Kremlin leader issued the ominous warning as he accused Washington of undermining global security because of its exit from arms pacts.

He also said the West's theft of Russian assets would "not remain unpunished".

"Washington has unilaterally withdrawn from various arms control treaties," he said.

"The selfishness and arrogance of Western states has led to the current extremely dangerous state of affairs.

"We have come unacceptably close to the point of no return.

"Calls to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, which has the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, demonstrate the extreme adventurism of Western politicians.

"They either do not understand the scale of the threat that they themselves create, or are simply obsessed with the belief in their own impunity and in their own exclusivity.

"Both of these can result in tragedy."

In 2019, theUS formally withdrew from a key nuclear treaty with Russia.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was signed by former US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 and banned missiles with ranges between 310 to 3,400 miles.

But the US pulled out of it, claiming it undermined its national security interests.

And then in 2023, Russia suspended itsparticipation in the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with the US, which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the US and Russia can deploy.

Russian attacks on Ukraine killed one person and injured 20 more over the past day, regional authorities say.

A total of 10 areas were targeted - Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytskyi, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kherson, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Donetsk.

Russian attacks caused the death of one person in Kherson, where nine houses, a car and a cultural institution were all damaged, according to governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Another man was injured and taken to hospital following an air strike on the village of Buhaivka.

In Kharkiv, a Russian drone strike damaged a bus carrying 15 civilians, also striking two cars, a cafe and a residential building, according to governor Oleh Syniehubov.

Six people, including a three-year-old girl, were injured during an attack on the town of Novomoskovsk. The attack also damaged 91 houses, five schools and a gas infrastructure facility.

Local authorities in the Esman community of Sumy reported that a Russian drone struck a bus carrying 20 people. Three women were injured and received medical care according to preliminary information.

A Russian aerial bomb attack on a residential area in Selydove injured at least six people aged between 62 and 93, the prosecutor general's office reported.

The attack damaged at least 10 high-rise buildings, a house, shop, cafe and a pharmacy.

As we have been reporting in our live politics coverage today, the right-wing Reform UK party has overtaken the governing Conservative Party in an opinion poll for the first time.

In light of this development - which puts Reform in second place behind Labour - its leader is predictably facing additional scrutiny.

As such, Nigel Farage was asked this morning about his previous remarks praising the Russian president.

Vladimir Putin is a "clever political operator", Mr Farage told BBC Radio 5 Live, before adding that he "does not like him as a human being in any way at all".

Challenged about his admiring comments about the Russian president, the Reform leader said: "Yeah, but not as a human being."

Asked why, Mr Farage replied: "How many years has he been in power? He's gone from prime minister, to president, he's a clever political operator. He kills journalists, I don't like him as a human being in any way at all.

"You can recognise the fact that some people are good at what they do, even if they have evil intent."

Asked if Adolf Hitler was good at what he did, Mr Farage replied: "What, as a public speaker? What do you think? Clearly, hypnotic in a very dangerous way."

For context: In 2014, Mr Farage named Mr Putin as the leader he most admired, calling his handling of the Syria crisis "brilliant".

He said he liked the Russian president for the way he worked, rather than for his political and personal approach.

Asked which current world leader he most admired, Mr Farage told GQ magazine at the time: "As an operator, but not as a human being, I would say Putin.

"The way he played the whole Syria thing. Brilliant. Not that I approve of him politically. How many journalists in jail now?"

Russia has added the Georgian National Legion to its list of terrorist organisations, Russia's state media TASS reports.

"Based on the evidence collected by the FSB, the southern district military court recognised the paramilitary formation Georgian National Legion as a terrorist organisation," Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) was quoted as saying by TASS.

The FSB also noted that members of the legion "participate in hostilities" on the side of the armed forces of Ukraine and are also "involved in organising sabotage and terrorist acts on Russian territory".

The Georgian National Legion is a military volunteer group created in 2014 at the beginning of Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine.

On its website, it states its "main goal" is to "help our Ukrainian brothers and sisters with the defence of their independence and territorial integrity from Russian occupiers".

An explosion has been heard in the region outside the capital of Kyiv during an air raid alert to warn of a possible Russian air attack, according to Reuters witnesses.

It is unclear if the explosion was the sound of air defences engaging a target.

Public broadcaster Suspilne also cited local residents saying they had heard explosions in the western region of Khmelnytskyi.

Since the beginning of the year, airstrikes between Ukraine and Russia have increased with both sides trying to push through a reported stalemate.

We brought you reports yesterday that US journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been jailed for over a year in Russia on espionage charges, will stand trial.

Here is what we know right now...

The Wall Street Journal reporter will have his trial in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, according to the authorities.

An indictment of reporter has been finalised and his case was filed to the Sverdlovsky Regional Court in the city, about 870 miles east of Moscow, according to Russia's prosecutor general's office.

There is still no word on when the trial will begin.

What happened to Evan Gershkovich?

Mr Gershkovich, 32, is accused of "gathering secret information" on orders from the CIA.

He was detained while on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg in March 2023 and accused of spying for the US. The reporter, his employer and the US government denied the allegations, and Washington designated him as wrongfully detained.

Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, alleged after arresting Mr Gershkovich that he was acting on US orders to collect state secrets but provided no evidence to back up the accusations.

The US state department spokesman Matthew Miller slammed the development, saying there was "absolutely zero credibility to those charges" and adding that the US government would continue to work to bring Mr Gershkovich home.

The Ukrainian military has said it downed seven of 14 missiles and all 17 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack.

The Ukrainian military shot down the targets over seven regions.

The governor of the Zaporizhzhia region said a missile struck an open area, with no damage and casualties immediately reported.

The air force also destroyed five drones over the Dnipro region, its governor said, with no reports of damage or casualties.