Putin says fighting ‘extremely difficult’ in areas he annexed illegally

Comments come after Kyiv renews calls for more weapons as Russian drones hit energy targets

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said the situation in four areas in Ukraine that Moscow annexed is “extremely difficult”.

Speaking with Russian security agencies operating in Ukraine late on Monday during Moscow’s Security Services Day, he said: “Yes, it is difficult for you now. The situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, is extremely difficult.”

The comments came after Kyiv renewed calls for more weapons after Russian drones hit energy targets across Ukraine last week and as fears grow that Russia is preparing for a fresh invasion from the north.

Mr Putin told the Federal Security Services [FSB] to step up surveillance of Russian society and the country’s borders to combat the “emergence of new threats” from abroad and “traitors” at home.

Russia’s state-controlled TASS news agency, quoting the video transcript of Mr Putin’s speech, said the president “urged the country’s counterintelligence agencies, including the military ones, to show utmost readiness and concentration”.

“It is necessary to put a firm stop to the activities of foreign special services, and to promptly identify traitors, spies and diversionists,” he said.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commented on the invasion in New York on Monday, saying it “will go on” and that he does not see a prospect for “effective peace talks in the immediate future”.

“I am not optimistic about the possibility of effective peace talks in the immediate future. I do believe that the military confrontation will go on and I think we will have still to wait a moment in which serious negotiations for peace will be possible,” he added.

“I don’t see them in the immediate horizon and that is why we are concentrating our efforts on other aspects, including in relation to increasing the efficiency of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, studying the possibility of adding new components to that initiative such as ammonia exports, accelerating the exchange of prisoners of war.”

On Monday, according to Ukrainian newspaper The Kyiv Independent, Russia launched another attack on Ukraine using “Iranian-made kamikaze drones”. They targeted critical infrastructure in and around Kyiv, marking it the third attack on Kyiv in less than a week.

Thirty out of 35 drones were shot down above Ukraine, the country’s air force said on its Telegram channel. According to the air defence, the drones were launched from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said explosions occurred in Kyiv’s central Solomianskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts and reported that critical infrastructure was damaged. No casualties have been reported in the capital.

The Russian president also told the country’s Federal Security Service that it needed to “significantly improve” its work as the invasion is set to enter into the 11th month and Mr Putin paid a visit to ally Belarus.

“Today’s rapidly changing global situation and the emergence of new threats and challenges impose high demands on the entire system of Russia’s security agencies,” he said.

“This means that you need to significantly improve your work in key areas, and use your operational, technical and personnel potential to the fullest.”