‘Impossible’ to beat Russia in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin gives rare interview

Vladimir Putin defends his decision to invade Ukraine in 2022 (file photo)

Moscow:

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with controversial right-wing US journalist Tucker Carlson on Thursday that the West should understand that defeating Russia in Ukraine is “impossible”.

Putin also said in a two-hour interview with the former Fox News host ahead of the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that a deal “can be reached” on the issue of jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

“Certain terms are being discussed through special services channels,” he said, insisting that the reporter was a spy — something the Journal and the U.S. government strongly deny.

This is the first one-on-one interview with Putin by Western media since 2019.

However, Carlson, who is close to White House candidate and former President Donald Trump, rarely asked tough questions and painted Russia as a Western country when the Kremlin leader told him about his views on Russian history. Victim of betrayal.

Putin defended his decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022. He said the West now realizes that despite U.S., European and NATO help coming to Ukraine, Russia will not be defeated.

“So far, there has been a lot of noise and screams about a strategic defeat against Russia on the battlefield. But now they are clearly starting to realize that even if it is possible, it is simply difficult to achieve. In my opinion, this is by definition It’s impossible to come up,” he said.

He also sent a message to the U.S. Congress, where Trump-led Republicans are increasingly unwilling to continue providing weapons and other military aid to Ukraine.

“I’ll tell you what we said on this matter and our message to the American leadership. If you really want to stop the fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons,” he said.

Asked whether Moscow would consider invading other countries in the region (NATO members Poland and Latvia) or the entire continent, Putt said that was “impossible.”

“We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. Why would we do this? We don’t have any interest at all. This is just spreading threats,” Putin said.

War with Poland, he said, “can happen only under one condition: if Poland attacks Russia.”

Asked about possible leadership changes after the U.S. election, in which Biden is expected to face Trump in a rematch in 2020, Putin said he would see little change.

“You just asked me if another leader would change something? It has nothing to do with leadership, it has nothing to do with someone’s character.”

Carlson offered few retorts in the interview (recorded Tuesday and posted on Carlson’s own website) and did not raise questions about Putin’s relationship with Trump.

During his presidency and after his defeat by Biden, Trump repeatedly praised Putin but stopped short of condemning the invasion of Ukraine — saying that if he was re-elected, he would be able to resolve the war in “24 hours,” without specifying How to solve.

Biden, by contrast, has called Putin a “war criminal” and has made supporting Ukraine’s democratically elected, pro-Western government one of the top priorities of his presidency.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)