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By Katherine Fung
Senior Writer
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said he's done ordering mass missile strikes on Ukraine, just as Ukrainian officials are reporting that Moscow has only a third of its missile inventory left.
Speaking to reporters Friday in a rare Q&A session, Putin said, "There is no need now for massive strikes. There are other tasks." He added that Russia's goal isn't "destroying Ukraine," according to The Moscow Times, an independent news outlet.
Putin's remarks come only four days after the Kremlin ordered a string of missile strikes on 11 Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, in the largest attack on Ukraine's energy grid since Russia's invasion began on February 24. The strikes were widely viewed as retaliation for last weekend's explosion on a bridge linking Russia to Crimea, which was annexed in 2014.
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Earlier on Friday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov revealed that only 609 Russian missiles remain from its inventory of 1,844 missiles when the war began.
"By using hundreds of high-precision missiles against civilian objects of Ukraine, the aggressor state reduces its ability to strike the military targets," Reznikov tweeted. He said that a military defeat for Russia is "inevitable" and that the country is "a terrorist state."
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Newsweek reached out for comment to Ukraine's Ministry of Defense.
On Friday, Putin maintained that Russia was "doing everything right" in Ukraine, despite battlefield setbacks that last month triggered Moscow's partial mobilization of Russia's armed forces. Initially, 220,000 Russian citizens were affected, but that number could climb to 300,000.
Russia's leader also said that "nothing additional" is planned in terms of expanding the draft and that he doesn't "see any additional need [for a proposal] in the foreseeable future."
"What is happening today is not pleasant," Putin said. He added that Russia and Ukraine "would have been in the same situation" even without the invasion, the only difference being that "the conditions would have been worse" for Russia.
Monday's mass missile strikes marked another escalation in the war, which is approaching its eighth month, and prompted Ukraine's Western allies to quickly deliver additional military aid to Ukraine for its defensive efforts.
Asked about the upcoming G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, Putin said, "Russia will certainly take part," but he added that the Kremlin was still deciding whether he would attend in person.
However, even if the Russian president were to participate, there is "no need" for bilateral talks with President Joe Biden over ending the war, he said.
Last week, Biden said that the risk of nuclear "Armageddon" is at the highest level since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and that Putin is "not joking when he talks about the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons, or biological or chemical weapons."
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