Putin says Ukrainian strikes damaging economy, but Russia is ‘quickly recovering’

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Ukrainian strikes are damaging his country’s economy, but that it is “recovering quickly” from them.

“They (Ukraine) are certainly causing us some damage, but we are recovering quickly. They won't be able to cause us any serious problems,” Putin said during a meeting with military personnel taking part in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Expressing that the Russian military’s presence in the zone of the “special military operation,” which Moscow uses to refer to the Ukraine war, exceeds 700,000 personnel, Putin said his country is “practically alone in opposing” the West.

Putin said his country’s forces are not advancing in Ukraine “as quickly as we would like,” but that they are still moving forward gradually day by day.

“Little by little, we are bringing our territories under our control. We will achieve this; no one can doubt it,” Putin further said.

He said that Russia will gradually increase the force of its retaliatory strikes against Ukraine to “discourage them from attacking our civilian facilities.”

While reiterating Russia’s accusations against NATO about starting the Ukraine war, Putin praised the level of technological and scientific development of NATO countries, defining them as “highly developed economies.”