Kremlin warns that Zelenskiy’s US visit will lead only to intensification of war
Mr Putin supported a proposal from defence minister Sergei Shoigu to increase the number of Russian combat personnel in the military to 1.5 million from the current 1.15 million. Mr Shoigu said the move was needed to counter growing threats from Nato states.
Mr Putin met his defence chiefs as Mr Zelenskiy travelled to Washington for his first known journey outside Ukraine since Russia launched its all-out attack on February 24th. Russia claimed sovereignty in September over four regions of Ukraine – having occupied Crimea in 2014 – but it has been driven back in Kharkiv and Kherson provinces in recent months and made little headway in the Donbas area, where on Tuesday Mr Zelenskiy visited troops in the frontline town of Bakhmut.
“They are now driven into a dead-end. And a rat backed into a dead-end is the most dangerous. So we are actively preparing for the next one, two, three months, which could be decisive,” he told Voice of America, adding that the Kremlin would not back down because it has “put everything on the line”.
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