‘We Didn't Have A Choice' - Putin Defends 'Noble' War

Vladimir Putin said yesterday that peace talks with Ukraine have hit a “dead end” and that his bloody war in Ukraine will continue as thousands more civilians flee eastern areas ahead of an anticipated renewed Russian offensive.

- Shweta Sharma Alastair Jamieson

The Russian president used a speech to goad the west, promising that he would achieve his aims in Ukraine.

"Its goals are absolutely clear and noble,” he said. “It's clear that we didn't have a choice. It was the right decision. We have again returned to a dead-end situation for us." Dismissing the punitive sanctions imposed by the US and its allies following his invasion of Ukraine, he said Russia would never again depend on the west.

Mr Putin, who had been a constant presence on Russian television at the start of the war, had largely retreated from public view since Moscow pulled its forces out of northern Ukraine earlier this month.

His speech came amid fresh investigations into suspected Russian war crimes. The United States said it could not find evidence of the use of chemical agents in Mariupol, while French forensic experts arrived in Bucha near Kyiv to help establish what happened in the town where hundreds of bodies have been discovered since Russian forces withdrew.