Warmongering Russian President Vladimir Putin has today declared "Russia can't be isolated" and warned the Kremlin's "goals are clear".
Putin said Western powers would fail if they attempted to isolate Moscow, citing the successes of the Soviet space programme as evidence.
While visiting a spaceport in Russia's Far East today, the despot claimed the country has a history of making spectacular leaps forward in tough conditions.
Putin went on to say the Kremlin will never again depend on the West after global powers imposed crippling sanctions to punish him for ordering the invasion of Ukraine on February 24 - in what he called a "special military operation" to "denazify" its western neighbour.
Sixty one years to the day since the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin blasted off into the history books by becoming the first man in space, Putin travelled to the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East, 3,450 miles (5550 km) east of Moscow.
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"We don't intend to be isolated," Putin said.
"It is impossible to severely isolate anyone in the modern world - especially such a vast country as Russia."
Russia's Cold War space successes such as Gagarin's flight and the 1957 launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite from earth, have a particular pertinence for Russia: both events shocked the United States.
The launch of Sputnik 1 prompted the United States to create NASA in a bid to catch up with Moscow.
Putin says the "special military operation" in Ukraine is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia - including via the NATO military alliance - and that Moscow had to defend Russian-speaking people in Ukraine from persecution.
He said on Tuesday that the had no doubts Russia would achieve all of its objectives in Ukraine - a conflict he cast as both inevitable and essential to defend Russia in the long term.
"Its goals are absolutely clear and noble," Putin said.
"It's clear that we didn't have a choice. It was the right decision."
Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in an effort to force it to withdraw its forces.
Russia's economy is on track to contract by more than 10% in 2022, the biggest fall in gross domestic product since the years following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin said on Tuesday.
Putin toured the space port in Russia's far east with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
"Why an earth are we getting so worried about these sanctions?" Lukashenko said, according to Russian state
television.
Lukashenko, who has a track record of saying things that appear to jar with his closest ally's stated positions on a range of issues, has insisted Belarus must be involved in negotiations to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
He also claims Belarus has been unfairly labelled an "accomplice of the aggressor".
Global powers have unilaterally rejected the Kremlin's claim that it's carrying out a "special military operation" to liberate, demilitarise, and "denazify" its neighbour and Soviet-era ally.
Instead Ukraine and its Western supporters claim it's a false pretext for the invasion - which has killed thousands and displaced millions.
The Kremlin has shifted its offensive from Kyiv, its suburbs and satellite towns, as well as other strategically important cities in order to focus on the pro-Russia Donbas region in the east.
Now with the large military presence in the east, a massive operation is expected in the near future.
