Ukraine war: Defiant Putin says invasion will strengthen Russia, hails ‘growing role’ of Asia-Pacific in global affairs

Vladimir Putin speaks at Russia economic forum, over six months after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine

The Russian leader sought to pivot towards allies in Asia, as his country faces a barrage of Western sanctions

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Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech at the plenary session of the 2022 Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok, Russia on Wednesday. Photo: TASS Host Photo/Handout via Reuters

Published: 4:53pm, 7 Sep 2022Updated: 8:22am, 8 Sep 2022

President Vladimir Putin said Russia will emerge stronger from his invasion of Ukraine as he lashed out at US and European “sanctions fever” in response to the war.

“I’m sure that we’ve lost nothing and won’t lose anything,” Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Wednesday, after he was asked about the conflict in Ukraine by the panel’s moderator following a speech in which he didn’t directly mention the war once. “The main thing we’ll gain is strengthening our sovereignty.”

The US and its allies estimate that tens of thousands of Russian troops have been killed or wounded and huge amounts of military equipment destroyed since Putin ordered the February 24 invasion and triggered the worst security crisis in Europe since World War II. Russia has also faced a barrage of US and European sanctions that are pushing its economy toward recession amid a stampede by international companies to exit the country and a ban on imports of Western technology.

The US and its allies have also provided Ukraine with billions of dollars of financial and military aid, including a flow of advanced weapons that has enabled Ukrainian forces to push back against the Russian aggression.

“The epidemic has been replaced by other challenges, also of a global nature, threatening the whole world,” Putin said, in reference to the economic impact of Covid-19. “I mean the sanctions fever of the West, its aggressive attempts to impose a model of behaviour on other countries, deprive them of their sovereignty and subordinate them to their will.”