Russia could have been better prepared for Ukraine attack, Putin says

President claims Moscow ready for peace if West stops supply of arms

Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated his accusation that the West was seeking to defeat Russia in Ukraine and said Moscow had its own peace plan. AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said Russia should have been better prepared for Ukrainian attack on its territory, but ruled out further mobilisation of reservists in the near future.

Ukraine's long-awaited counteroffensive began with a series of attacks on Russian territory, including in the border region of Belgorod.

“One could have assumed that the enemy would behave this way, and one could have prepared better,” Mr Putin said as he met with Russian journalists covering the conflict in the Kremlin.

“Of course, we need to reinforce the border.”

Ukraine's counteroffensive had been successfully thwarted, he said, with Kyiv's forces sustaining heavy losses as it attempted to claw back territory it had lost in the early weeks of the conflict.

“Their losses are approaching a level that could be described as catastrophic,” Mr Putin said. Russian forces had repelled all attacks, he claimed.

Mr Putin said Ukraine launched its offensive on June 4, and was leading it in at least three sectors: Shakhtar and Vremenksy in the east and Zaporizhzhia in the south.

“The enemy was not successful in any area,” Mr Putin said. Russia had suffered “ten times fewer losses than those of the armed forces of Ukraine”, he added.

Mr Putin said Kyiv had lost 160 tanks and 360 armoured vehicles, “which, according to my calculations, is about 25 per cent, maybe 30 per cent of the equipment delivered from abroad”.

“We lost 54 tanks and some of them can be repaired and brought back to operation,” he said.

Russia was open to peace talks, but that the only way to stop the conflict was for western countries to end their arms supplies to Kyiv, he added.

Mr Putin also repeated his accusation that the West was seeking to defeat Russia in Ukraine and said that Moscow had its own “peace plan”.

Although not been officially confirmed, there is growing evidence Ukraine has lost significant equipment in the past week.

A specialist military intelligence analyst, who asked to remain anonymous, told The National the evidence so far showed the “Russians have got it together”.

“Their defence seems very well co-ordinated, in that they're able to isolate Ukrainian formations in a way that is pretty destructive,” the analyst said. “What comes next is likely to be quite violent and bloody.”

Meanwhile, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine's offensive to liberate swathes of territory occupied by Russia could force the Kremlin to negotiate.

Mr Stoltenberg, who was meeting with US President Joe Biden in the White House later on Tuesday, told CNN that it was “still early days” for the offensive, which he characterised as “difficult”.

He said that “the more land they gain, the more likely it is that President Putin will understand that he has to sit down at the negotiating table and agree to a just and enduring peace in Ukraine”.

A woman holds her cat at the scene of an apartment block hit by a Russian missile in Kryvyi Rih. EPA

The meeting with Mr Biden was scheduled for Monday but postponed after the US President had to undergo dental work. Preparations are under way for a Nato summit in July in Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

Earlier, at least 11 people were killed when a Russian missile hit an apartment building and a warehouse in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih on Tuesday.

Residents sobbed outside the burnt-out apartment block and smoke billowed after the early-morning attack.

Officials said at least four people were killed in the apartment building and another seven in the warehouse. Twenty-eight were injured.

Broken glass and bricks were strewn across the street and courtyard outside the apartment block. At least five cars were burnt out.

Survivors described two explosions. Olha Chernousova said she was thrown out of her bed by a violent blast wave. She escaped on to her balcony to wait for rescuers. “I thought I would have to jump into a tree,” she said.

“Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people,” Mr Zelenskyy said on Telegram.