President Vladimir Putin said Russia will emerge stronger from his invasion of Ukraine as he lashed out at U.S. and European “sanctions fever” in response to the war.
“I’m sure that we’ve lost nothing and won’t lose anything,” Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivistok on Wednesday, after he was asked about the conflict in Ukraine by the panel’s moderator following a speech in which he didn’t directly mention the war. “The main thing we’ll gain is strengthening our sovereignty.”
The U.S. and its allies estimate that tens of thousands of Russian troops have been killed or wounded and huge amounts of military equipment destroyed since Putin ordered the Feb. 24 invasion that triggered the worst security crisis in Europe since World War II. Russia has also faced a barrage of international sanctions that are pushing its economy toward recession amid a stampede by foreign companies to exit the country and a ban on imports of Western technology.
