President Vladimir Putin said the situation in four areas of Ukraine that Moscow has declared are part of Russia was “extremely difficult” and ordered security services to step up surveillance to secure its borders and combat new threats. Putin’s comments made on Security Services Day, widely celebrated in Russia, came as Kyiv renewed calls for more weapons after Russian drones hit energy targets and as fears grow that Moscow’s ally Belarus could open a new invasion front against Ukraine. Putin ordered the Federal Security Services (FSB) to step up surveillance of Russian society and the country’s borders to combat the “emergence of new threats” from abroad and traitors at home. In a rare admission of the invasion of Ukraine not going smoothly, Putin cautioned about the difficult situation in Ukraine’s regions that Moscow moved to annex in September and ordered the FSB to ensure the “safety” of people living there. “The situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is extremely difficult,” Putin said late on Monday in comments translated by Reuters. In September, a defiant Putin moved to annex a swathe of Ukraine – some 15 per cent of the country – in a Kremlin ceremony, but earlier this month, he said the war “can be a long process”. Drones attack Kyiv again as Russia’s Putin heads to Belarus Putin’s move to annex the areas was condemned by Kyiv and its Western allies as illegal. On Monday, Putin made his first visit to Belarus since 2019, where he and his counterpart extolled ever-closer ties at a news conference late in the evening but hardly mentioned Ukraine. Kyiv, meanwhile, was seeking more weapons from the West after Russian “kamikaze” drones hit energy targets early on Monday. “Weapons, shells, new defence capabilities … everything that will give us the ability to speed up the end to this war,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address. The Ukrainian military high command said their air defences had shot down 23 of 28 drones – most over the capital Kyiv – in what was Moscow’s third air strike in six days. Russia has targeted Ukraine’s power grid, causing blackouts amid sub-zero temperatures. The “kamikaze” drones used in the attacks are cheaply produced, disposable unmanned aircraft that fly toward their target before plummeting at speed and detonating on impact. To the northwest of Ukraine, there has been constant Russian and Belarusian military activity for months in Belarus, a close Kremlin ally that Moscow’s troops used as a launch pad for their abortive attack on Kyiv in February. China must prepare for a Russia weakened by Ukraine war, analysts say Putin’s trip to Minsk has stirred fears in Ukraine about the broader involvement of Belarusian armed forces in the invasion. Putin and Lukashenko scarcely touched on Ukraine at a post-talks news conference, instead extolling the benefits of defence and economic alignment. Lukashenko has said repeatedly he has no intention of sending his country’s troops into Ukraine, where Moscow’s invasion faltered badly with a string of battlefield retreats in the face of a major counteroffensive. The Kremlin on Monday dismissed the suggestion that Putin wanted to push Belarus into a more active role. The RIA Novosti news agency quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying such reports were “groundless” and “stupid”. Both Putin and Lukashenko were also at pains to dismiss the idea of Russia annexing or absorbing Belarus. Russia warns of ‘consequences’ if US sends Patriot missiles to Ukraine “Russia has no interest in absorbing anyone,” Putin said. Asked about this comment, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said it should be treated as the “height of irony”, given it was “coming from a leader who is seeking at the present moment, right now, to violently absorb his other peaceful next-door neighbour”. Meanwhile, the intelligence service of Moldova, which borders Ukraine, fears a Russian invasion next year. “The question is not whether the Russian Federation will carry out a new offensive against the territory of the republic of Moldova, but when,” intelligence chief Alexandru Musteata said on state television on Monday. A period between January and April is possible, he said. By the “new” offensive, Musteata was referring to the stationing of Russian soldiers in Transnistria, a breakaway part of the country since the early 1990s. Russia claims its troops are in Transnistria as “peacekeepers”. According to information from his intelligence service, Russia intends to link Transnistria and Moldova. “Yes, we can clearly say that they intend to come here,” he said. Russian plans regarding the capital Chisinau are not yet apparent, he said. “But this is a real and very high risk”. Moldova, now seeking closer ties with the West like Ukraine, has condemned the Russian invasion of its larger neighbour. Additional reporting by dpa