The Kremlin on Wednesday vowed to continue its military offensive in Ukraine, pushing back against US President Donald Trump’s claim that Kyiv could reclaim all occupied territory and his description of Russia as a “paper tiger.”
Trump’s sharp comments came a day earlier after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations, marking a notable shift in his tone on the nearly four-year war. The Republican leader, who once boasted he could end the conflict “within hours,” suggested Ukraine could even go beyond reclaiming its pre-2022 borders.
Moscow was quick to reject that assessment.
“The idea that Ukraine can recapture something is, from our point of view, mistaken,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He added that Russia would continue what it calls its “special military operation” to secure long-term national interests: “We are doing this for both the present and the future of our country. For many generations to come. Therefore, we have no alternative.”
Russia Pushes Back on Trump’s Remarks
Peskov also dismissed Trump’s “paper tiger” remark. “Russia is more associated with a bear. And paper bears don’t exist. Russia is a real bear,” he said. He acknowledged, however, that Russia’s economy was under strain from the costs of the war, with the finance ministry proposing a sales tax hike next year to offset a widening budget deficit.
Since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Moscow has seized roughly one-fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula annexed in 2014. The war has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and devastated eastern and southern Ukraine.
Despite Trump’s dismissal of Russia’s military strength, Moscow has continued its slow but grinding advances on the battlefield. Both armies have suffered heavy losses in recent months.
Escalating Strikes
Meanwhile, Ukraine has intensified its campaign against Russian energy infrastructure. Overnight, Kyiv’s drones struck a major oil refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan region, sparking a massive fire. A separate drone strike killed two people in the Russian port city of Novorossiysk, near annexed Crimea, according to local authorities.
