President Vladimir Putin of Russia says the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has nothing whatsoever in common with the war in Ukraine.
Speaking at a news conference in Moscow Thursday, the Russian leader said Israel’s brutality in the besieged Gaza Strip – in its third month now – has sparked a disaster on a scale incomparable to the “special operation” Moscow launched in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
“Everybody here and around the world can see and look at the special military operation and at what is happening in Gaza and feel the difference.”
“But there is nothing like this in Ukraine,” Putin stated.
The Russian president referred to remarks by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who described the Gaza Strip as the “world’s largest graveyard for children.”
“This is an objective assessment, what can I say here,” Putin said.
The Russian president also said his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is playing a leading role in resolving the situation in Gaza.
“He is, of course, one of the leaders of the international community who pays attention to this tragedy and does everything to ensure that the situation is changed for the better in order to create conditions for long-term peace.”
The Turkish president has repeatedly said that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes against the Palestinians.
Israel has killed nearly 18,800 people in Gaza since it launched its barbaric war on Gaza since early October. Two-thirds of those killed in Gaza are women and children.
The regime has also cut access to basic supplies, such as water, electricity, and fuel in Gaza. Shortage of medical supplies and food has left 2.3 million Palestinians at risk of starvation.
The Palestinian foreign minister, Riad al-Maliki, told a UN meeting in Geneva on Tuesday that Tel Aviv has been using starvation as a weapon of war against the population of Gaza.
‘Ukraine war will go on until Russia achieves its goals’
President Putin said during the press conference that the “military operation” will go on unless Moscow strikes a deal with Kiev to secures Ukraine’s “demilitarization,” “denazification” and “neutrality.”
“There will be peace when we achieve our goals… As for demilitarization, if they (the Ukrainians) don’t want to come to an agreement; well then we are forced to take other measures, including military ones,” he said.
“Either we get an agreement, agree on certain parameters (on the size and strength of Ukraine’s military) … or we solve this by force. This is what we will strive for.”
Putin said Russia had deployed more than 600,000 military personnel in Ukraine, nearly two years after he ordered his troops to capture Kiev.
“The front line is over 2,000 kilometers long. There are 617,000 people in the conflict zone,” Putin said during his first end-of-year press conference since sending his army into Ukraine in February 2022.
He added that some 244,000 mobilized troops were currently stationed in territories in Ukraine that are controlled by Russian forces.
Putin said there were no immediate plans to introduce a fresh round of mobilization of Russian men for the conflict.
The Russian leader says NATO’s eastward expansion was the main cause of the war in Ukraine. He says the “special military operation” was necessary to “defend people” against Western aggression and its expansionist policy.
But since the start of the war, Kiev has stepped up its pursuit of membership in NATO and the European Union as the West has kept providing the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky with tens of billions of dollars in weaponry and munitions.
