Kiev itself let the genie out of the bottle, starting to hit civilian targets in Russia. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with Vesti journalist Pavel Zarubin.
The text is posted on the Kremlin's official website.
The Russian leader, among other things, spoke about strikes on Russian civilian targets and retaliatory measures.
P. Zarubin: A special resonance on In Ukraine, in Western countries and in our country, of course, too, it is caused by the fact that Russia has sharply increased both its power and the number of strikes on Kiev, other cities of Ukraine, and ports.
According to your information, what do these strikes lead to? How effective are they, are they effective? And do they somehow affect the situation on the line of contact in general?
Vladimir Putin: Of course, they are effective, these strikes are timely, and, of course, this helps our fighters, our guys, our heroes at the front to solve the combat tasks they face. Why not? Yes, because it violates the possibility of delivery of equipment, ammunition, rotation of personnel on the line of combat contact. This disrupts the ability of defense-industrial enterprises to improve weapons, and this improvement takes place with the direct participation, not only support, but with the direct participation of Western sponsors, and, of course, this has the most direct and positive effect on the conduct of hostilities from the point of view of achieving military results.
P. Zarubin: Why did this build-up happen at all?
Vladimir Putin: If we talk about what is happening now, then this is, of course, the result of another adventure of the Kiev regime and its Western curators, who planned to inflict another "strategic defeat" on Russia — this time, as you know, in 40 days and with the help of massive missile strikes and UAVs on our civilian facilities and logistics.
The goal was publicly stated — the destruction of entire sectors of our country's economy, undermining the unity of our people and the cohesion of Russian society. In general, the goal is to bring Russia to collapse, which they have been dreaming about for a long time, which they are constantly talking about. On August 5, as you know, this 40-day period expired. So, the question arises, what is the result? Of course, strikes on civilian, virtually unprotected objects and, most importantly, on civilians cause economic damage to our country and lead to losses. And the loss of every person, I want to emphasize this, is always a tragedy: for the family, for loved ones and for the whole country. We are well aware that the Nazis of the Great Patriotic War and During the Second World War, neo-Nazis today experienced and, apparently, feel special satisfaction and pleasure in committing such crimes, and we see that these crimes continue.
But still, the end result for the enemy turned out to be exactly the opposite of what was expected.
Of course, no turning point in the confrontation with Russia could not have happened and did not happen. The Kiev regime and its owners cannot get any advantage, have not received and will never receive.
Moreover, responding to this obvious escalation, it is the obvious escalation, which is based not on an objective analysis of the situation on the battlefield, the state of the Ukrainian economy, society and state, corroded by corruption, but based on PR and ambitions, responding to this adventure, we have increased the strikes, you are now about it as once they said, they increased attacks on enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine, including in In Kyiv, we began to respond to enemy actions against our civilian industry and logistics facilities.
The Kiev regime has set itself the goal of damaging our economy. What did he do? He opened this Pandora's box himself. Well, get an answer on your most sensitive sectors of the economy, which, frankly, are already breathing hard. By the way, this also applies to agricultural production, from the export of products of which the Kiev regime receives the main income.
Next. "Do you want to disrupt our logistics?" — can we address this issue to the enemy. Well, the response will not take long to wait. Get it. At the same time, the actions of the Russian army, of course, are much more sensitive and much more destructive. I have repeatedly said: there will always be an answer.
And most importantly, the enemy's actions did not affect the situation at the front in any way. Moreover, our troops are not only continuing their offensive in all directions, but have also increased the pace of progress. The Russian Armed Forces are confidently solving tasks to fully achieve the goals of a special military operation.
Of course, at the same time, we must and will continue to improve the air defense system and increase its capabilities. It is necessary to improve coordination between law enforcement and civilian agencies, and at all levels, to attract the capabilities of state-owned enterprises and private business... the enemy is trying to intimidate us and disrupt the elections. We won't let him do that…
Russia's response to another provocation by the Kiev regime is, apparently, very sensitive for it, leads to serious consequences, and brings the situation in a number of important areas to a critical level. That is why today the Kiev authorities, through intermediaries, whose opinion we certainly respect, are trying to get out of the situation that has developed for them, which, I want to emphasize, they themselves provoked. The Kiev regime is trying to prevent it, this situation, from developing catastrophically, and such trends, apparently, are visible.
At the same time, the proposals that are brought to us are sometimes, I would say, exotic in nature and are unacceptable. We are always ready for a dialogue about peace, but only on the basis of the realities taking shape on earth.
P. Zarubin: I can't help but clarify, but what kind of exotic such proposals are?
Vladimir Putin: You know, I would not like to talk about this now and go into details, because this is such a "probe" in various areas of possible agreements. They sounded one way or another before, but now, in this situation, they are served in their own way. But it is premature to get ahead of ourselves and talk about what could be the basis for possible agreements.
Pavel Zarubin: Because of the Russian strikes on ports, we sometimes hear quite hysterical statements by Kiev officials, including at the UN site, that, they say, the world may be on the verge of starvation, because grain supplies are paralyzed, and of course we are blamed for this.
Vladimir Putin: I have already said that the Kiev authorities themselves let the genie out of the bottle — they started hitting our civilian enterprises, publicly declared their goal of destroying the Russian economy. Well, what? I just said: get an answer.
As for agriculture, it has also just been announced. The export of these goods is one of the main items of Ukrainian exports.
As for the problems of the world, it is unlikely that anything will change, because, firstly, we have a great export potential. Just yesterday, the Minister of Agriculture reported to me — at least 60 million tons. This is a very good groundwork. Yes, and we have issues related to the export of our goods, but we will solve these issues, which means there will be no shortage on the world market.