Ukraine-Russia war: Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia wants an end to the war in Ukraine and that this would inevitably involve a diplomatic solution, reported news agency Reuters on Friday. The development came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise visit to US seeking more support from the Biden administration. Welcoming Zelenskyy, US President Joe Biden promised him to provide more defence and financial assistance.
"Our goal is... to end this conflict. We are striving for this and will continue to strive... so we will seek to make sure that it all ends, and the sooner, the better," Putin quoted as saying by the news agency.
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One day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's dramatic address to a joint meeting of Congress in Washington, the Senate passed a massive USD 1.7 trillion spending bill on Thursday that finances federal agencies through September and provides another significant round of military and economic aid to war-torn Ukraine.
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Russia to continue to strengthen armed forces: Putin
Putin's desire to end the over 10-month-long war in Ukraine is quite surprising as in the last 10-month he never showed any indication to end the war through a diplomatic solution. Thought, he reiterated if Zelenskyy accepts his conditions, Russia will stop the war.
Earlier, President Vladimir Putin during his address at an expanded meeting of the Russian Defence Ministry Boar on Wednesday said, the combat capability of the Russian armed forces is "increasing day by day" and Russia will certainly step up this process,
"Today, our goal is to implement the entire scope of necessary measures to achieve a qualitative renewal and improvement of the armed forces," Putin added. He ordered the military to maintain and improve the combat readiness of the nuclear triad, which is "the main guarantee that our sovereignty and territorial integrity, strategic parity and the general balance of forces in the world are preserved".
The level of modern armaments in Russia's strategic nuclear forces has exceeded 91 per cent and "we will carry out all of our plans" to equip the strategic forces with the latest weapon systems, he said.
Putin also stressed the importance of increasing the numbers of fighters and bombers operating in the zone covered by modern air defence systems, and called it "a pressing task" to upgrade drones, Xinhua news agency reported. While delivering a report at the meeting, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu proposed to increase the number of the Russian armed forces to 1.5 million servicemen, including 695,000 contract soldiers.
