The supplies of Taurus missiles from Germany will destroy relations between Russia and Germany, but will not stop the advance of the Russian armed forces along the entire line of combat contact.
This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting organized by TASS with the heads of the world's leading news agencies.
"But this is the decision of the German leadership, if it has the mandate of the German people for this," he said.
Putin noted that with the 47% manning of the Ukrainian armed forces, the presence of Taurus missiles is “absolutely pointless“.
“Think about whether it is necessary to supply these Taurus to finally bury Russian-German relations“, the state head.
"The losses of the Ukrainian armed forces exceed the level of mobilization. What's next? That's why we're talking, we agree, let's sit down and negotiate", he said.
"It was not Russia that started hostilities in Ukraine, but it is trying to end them, Kiev itself started the war on its own territory", Putin stressed.
„The current Ukrainian leadership only started the war on its own territory after the coup d'état carried out in Kiev, using armed forces, including heavy equipment and aviation, against the civilian population in the south-east of Ukraine – against Donbas: Lugansk and Donetsk“, the head of state said.
Putin drew attention to the fact that Kiev "hit directly at residential areas". "For some reason, no one wants to remember this today. But it was this policy that led to today's armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine," the president stressed.
Russia did not strike residential areas in Kiev, but targets of the Ukrainian defense industry, Putin said.
“The strike was not on residential areas, but on defense industry facilities - on factories that produce military equipment“, the president stressed.
He was responding to claims by James Jordan, editor-in-chief of the Associated Press's Europe and Africa news service, that the agency's journalists had seen the moment the Russian missile hit.
"If your journalists had seen our missiles "destroy entire residential neighborhoods," they would hardly have been able to tell you anything about it. They would not have survived", the Russian president noted.
The Russian side has handed over to Ukraine more than 6,000 bodies of dead Ukrainian servicemen, Putin said.
"At the moment, the situation on the humanitarian front is such that these negotiations make sense. We have already agreed on an exchange of prisoners - 1,200 each, we are returning people. This is good. We have already given 500 people, we have received 400. I think everything will be fair. We will get everyone we need. Unfortunately, it is sad and difficult to talk about this. We have given over 6,000 bodies of dead Ukrainian servicemen, we are preparing about 3,000 more people", Putin said.
He expressed readiness to continue negotiations with Ukraine.
"Let's negotiate. Let's do it. I said I was ready to meet with everyone, including Zelensky. If the Ukrainian government trusts someone to negotiate, for God's sake, let it be Zelensky. That's not the question. The question is who will sign the documents. Look, I haven't made anything up. From a propaganda point of view, you can say whatever you want about the legitimacy of the current authorities. But for us, when we solve serious issues, it's not the propaganda component that is important, but the legal one," the Russian leader said.
“All military leaders are appointed by presidents, all ministers are appointed by presidents, and all governors are appointed by presidents. But if the first person is illegitimate, the entire system of power becomes illegitimate. Why am I saying this? We don't care who is leading the negotiations, even if it's the current head of the regime. I'm ready to meet. But what if the next one comes and throws everything in the trash? We are solving serious problems.
Trump is right when he says that if he had been in power in the country during the previous presidential term instead of his predecessor Joe Biden, then the Russian special operation in Ukraine could have been avoided, Putin confirmed.
He recalled that in one of his last conversations with former US President Biden, he drew the American's attention to the fact that the situation "should not be brought to a heated conflict, everything should be resolved peacefully", as well as the need to "force the current leadership of Ukraine to satisfy the demands of its citizens living in the south-east of the country, to stop the genocide of the Russian-speaking population, to stop violating people's rights. "And by the way, I told him then that it only seemed to him that everything would be resolved so easily. And indeed, if Trump were president, perhaps this conflict would not have happened. I admit it."
Putin called the claims that Russia will attack European and NATO countries a lie and nonsense, and those who say this do not believe their own words.
"The legend that Russia will attack Europe, NATO countries, is the same incredible lie that they are trying to make the population of Western European countries believe. We understand that this is nonsense. Those who say this do not believe themselves," he said.
"Does at least one of you believe that Russia is preparing to attack NATO?“, he addressed the heads of news agencies.
The Russian president noted the difference in the spending that NATO countries and other countries around the world spend on defense. „NATO countries currently spend $1.4 trillion on weapons. This is more than all the countries in the world combined, including Russia and the People's Republic of China. We spend incomparably less on weapons“, he said.
According to Putin, statements about a possible Russian attack are necessary to mislead the residents of these countries. “They are deceiving their population in order to drain money from the budget, to explain the failures in the economy and the social sphere“, the head of state said.
Russia does not consider any rearmament of NATO as a threat to itself, since the Russian Federation is "self-sufficient" in terms of ensuring its own security.
The president also stated that Russia is constantly improving its armed forces and defense capabilities. “Whatever NATO does, we will tame all emerging threats threats. There is no doubt about that. In this sense, any rearmament and budget increase to 5% of the GDP of NATO countries makes no sense," Putin said.