Putin claims Russia has barely started campaign in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has issued one of his most ominous warnings yet, claiming Moscow has barely started its campaign in Ukraine and daring the west to try to defeat it on the battlefield.

Speaking at a meeting with parliamentary leaders on Thursday, the Russian president said the prospects for any negotiation would grow dimmer the longer the conflict dragged on.

“Everyone should know that by and large we haven’t started anything yet in earnest,” he said. “At the same time, we don’t reject peace talks. But those who reject them should know that the further it goes, the harder it will be for them to negotiate with us.”

Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov doubled down on the threats on Friday, saying that only “a small part” of Russia’s “great” military potential was currently being used in Ukraine.

Putin in his meeting with parliamentary leaders accused Ukraine’s western allies of fuelling hostilities, charging that “the west wants to fight us until the last Ukrainian” and that they were welcome to try but it would only bring tragedy for Ukraine.

“Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. What can you say – let them try,” he said. “The goals of the special military operation will be achieved. There are no doubts about that.”

Putin’s statements contradict recent US intelligence that said Russian forces in Ukraine had been so heavily degraded by more than four months of combat that they could achieve only “incremental gains” in the near term.

Mikhail Podolyak, a key adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, tweeted: “37,000 dead Russian soldiers. Total sanitary losses [injured] of 98-117 thousand people. 10 generals were eliminated. 1605 tanks, 405 planes/helicopters were turned into scrap. Has Russia not started fighting yet? Is [the] Kremlin considering war only by Stalin’s mathematics – 20 million losses?”

Nevertheless, the Russian leader’s comments indicate that the Kremlin has no intentions of winding down the fighting in Ukraine, an assessment shared by US officials who believe Putin still wants to seize most of Ukraine.

After Moscow failed to achieve a rapid victory following its invasion of Ukraine, the fighting has turned into a grinding war of attrition focused on the eastern Donbas region, with no clear end in sight. This week, Putin ordered his senior generals to carry on their advance towards western parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk province after the Russian army seized the country’s far eastern Luhansk region.

To continue its offensive in Donbas, Russia would need to replenish its infantry units, according to assessments made by military experts and western governments. In a recent intelligence briefing, the British defence ministry said Russia’s campaign would probably increasingly rely on echelons of reserve forces.

The Russian president said at a meeting with parliamentary leaders on Thursday that the prospects for any negotiation would grow dimmer the longer the conflict dragged on. Photograph: Sputnik/Reuters

Prisons and large state companies across Russia have started to recruit volunteers to fight in Ukraine, according to two reports by independent media published this week. And in another sign that Russia is preparing for the long haul, the parliament pushed through two bills on Wednesday that will give the state greater control over private business and workers, which will in effect place Russia on a war economy footing.

“In the context of operations carried out by the armed forces of the Russian Federation outside of Russia, including on the territory of Ukraine, there is a need to repair weapons, military equipment and provide the armed forces with material and technical means,” said an explanatory note to one of the bills.

The bills, which still need to be reviewed by the upper house of parliament and signed by Putin to become law, will allow the government to force businesses to supply the military with goods and compel their employees to work overtime and at night to provide goods to the army.

During a discussion of the new laws, the deputy prime minister, Yuri Borisov, acknowledged that western sanctions were creating pressure on the economy and that the new laws were needed to “guarantee the supply of arms and ammunition”.

He said: “Russia has been conducting a special military operation for four months now under enormous sanctions pressure.”