Putin says ready to discuss neutrality for Ukraine
President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday (March 16) that Russia was ready to discuss Ukraine's neutral status in talks aimed at ending hostilities there, but that Moscow would still achieve the goals of its military operation, which he said was "going to plan".
Putin also said Russia would achieve its goals and would not submit to what he called a Western attempt to achieve global dominance and dismember the country.
He said the West had effectively declared Russia in default as part of its sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine, and that the conflict had merely been a pretext for the West to impose sanctions.
"The West doesn't even bother to hide the fact that its aim is to damage the entire Russian economy, every Russian," he said.
He said on Wednesday that the Russian economy is facing difficulties caused by the international sanctions against it but will adapt and recover.
In his most explicit acknowledgement of the pain inflicted by Western sanctions, Putin said inflation and unemployment would rise, and structural changes to the economy would be needed. But he promised support to families with children.
There was no sign of any softening in his bitter invective against the West and Ukraine.
Putin has consistently described the democratically elected leaders of Ukraine as neo-Nazis bent on committing genocide against Russian-speakers in the east of the country - a line that the West denounces as baseless war propaganda.
