Ukraine: Prospect of Russian defeat is “illusory”, warns Putin before meeting with Guterres

Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that it was “illusory” to imagine a Russian defeat on the battlefield at the BRICS summit in Kazan, where the Russian president is due to discuss Ukraine with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The West “does not hide its objective of inflicting a strategic defeat on our country”, “illusory calculations that can only be made by those who do not know the history of Russia and do not take into account its unity forged over centuries”, he said at a time when his troops continue to advance against the Ukrainian army.

In unison with the BRICS leaders, Vladimir Putin also warned that “the entire Middle East (was) on the brink of total war”.

His Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping called for a ceasefire in Gaza, the implementation of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a halt to the “spread of war in Lebanon,” where Israel has been engaged in an offensive against pro-Iranian Hezbollah for a month.

Under the eyes of Antonio Guterres, Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian deplored the ineffectiveness of international institutions, particularly the UN, in “putting out the fire” in the Middle East.

A group of nine countries accounting for nearly half the world's population and nearly a third of the planet's GDP, the BRICS can be “a stabilizing force for peace,” said Xi Jinping, whose country is Russia's main supporter of Western countries.

The Middle East and especially Ukraine will be on the agenda of the meeting scheduled for the evening, after the close of the summit, between Vladimir Putin and Antonio Guterres, their first since April 2022. Moscow and kyiv have ceased all official negotiations and their positions seem irreconcilable. The prospect of negotiations remains very hypothetical at a time when the Kremlin is welcoming a “positive dynamic” on the front for its troops.

– “Peace” and “stability” –

In Kazan, “the Secretary-General will reaffirm his well-known positions on the war in Ukraine and the conditions for a just peace based on the United Nations Charter and resolutions and international law,” stressed one of his spokespersons, Farhan Haq.

Antonio Guterres has regularly stressed that the annexation of territories has “no place in the modern world”.

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While Xi Jinping said on Thursday that the BRICS should become a “stabilizing force for peace”, offers of mediation from partner countries were welcomed “favorably by the Russian president” in Kazan, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

Upon his arrival on Tuesday, Indian Prime Minister Modi, assuring that he was in contact with both parties, expressed his support for all “efforts to quickly restore peace and stability”.

China and India have never condemned – or even recognized – the annexation of Ukrainian territories by Russia.

– “Bad Choice” –

Lula, the president of Brazil, another BRICS stalwart, has drawn heavy criticism in Ukraine and the West for saying responsibility for the conflict was shared, even though he condemned Russia’s February 2022 assault.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS in Kazan, Russia, on October 23, 2024 © POOL – Alexander NEMENOV

The calls for peace and the opening of talks in Ukraine launched in Kazan are not likely to meet the expectations of the European Union, which is urging the heads of state and government of the BRICS to urge Vladimir Putin to “immediately put an end to the war he is waging against the Ukrainian people”.

By going to Kazan, Mr. Guterres made a “bad choice” that “only damages the reputation of the UN,” kyiv deplored.

With this BRICS meeting in his country, Vladimir Putin intends to demonstrate the failure of the Western policy of sanctions and isolation of his country, particularly with countries belonging to what is often described as the “Global South,” and to display his desire to bring down the supposed “hegemony” of the West in global diplomatic relations in order to promote the advent of “a multipolar world.”

He had bilateral meetings with representatives of the West's bêtes noires, the Iranian Massoud Pezeshkian and the Venezuelan Nicolas Maduro.

With four members (Brazil, Russia, India, China) when it was created in 2009 and having integrated South Africa in 2010, the bloc now called BRICS (the initials of these states in English) was joined this year by Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates).

Turkey, a member of NATO, asked to join the group in September. Its president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that he was determined to continue the “dialogue with the BRICS family”.

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