If Europe wants war with Russia, 'we are ready': Putin

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00:00It's an important week for the future of Ukraine.

00:02This Tuesday, threats from Russia's authoritarian president,

00:07Vladimir Putin's words from Moscow this afternoon.

00:10If Europe wants war, Russia is ready.

00:14Hawke's remarks that dialed up the tension ahead of the visit of the

00:17U.S. President Donald Trump's chief negotiators to Washington,

00:21Steve Wyckoff, Trump's longtime business associate.

00:24He's an open admirer of Putin.

00:27Putin, we remind you, wanted for war crimes in Ukraine.

00:30Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, he was there too.

00:33The meeting, preceded by days of frenzied diplomacy from Florida to

00:37Geneva to Abu Dhabi, comes as Washington says it's very optimistic about

00:42ending Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II,

00:45though Washington's plans still favour Putin's playbook.

00:49Well, let's hear Putin's words, the clear threat to Europe,

00:52ahead of his sit-down with Wyckoff and Kushner.

00:54We do not intend to fight Europe.

01:01I've said this a hundred times.

01:04But if Europe suddenly decides to wage war against us and starts it,

01:08we are ready right now.

01:11With Ukraine, we are acting in a surgical and careful way.

01:15It's not war in the full modern sense of the word.

01:22If Europe chooses to start a war, the situation could very quickly reach a point

01:26where there will be no one left for us to negotiate with.

01:29Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia.

01:37Let's bring in Gulliver crowd.

01:38Gulliver, of course, is our Ukraine correspondent joining us live from Kyiv.

01:41Gulliver, good evening to you.

01:42Putin's words there, hawkish indeed.

01:46Do we interpret this as a real threat or just hot air, for want of a better phrase?

01:50Well, I'd like to take this opportunity to quote Alexandra Matvichuk,

01:55the Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

01:57She shared it with Russian and Belarusian human rights activists in 2022.

02:02She was asked recently in an interview about something Vladimir Putin had said,

02:05and she said, I do not know why we have to continue to take these words seriously

02:10or really pay attention to anything.

02:12He says he's obviously a liar.

02:14Now, here he goes again saying, well, we don't have any intention to make war with Europe.

02:19He said that about Ukraine as well.

02:20They said they wouldn't invade Ukraine.

02:22Saying that they are attacking surgically is quite offensive, I think,

02:27to all of the Ukrainian civilians who've lost loved ones or had their homes destroyed.

02:32Kyiv bears the scars of Russian, the lack of precision, I would say, of their attacks.

02:39But the one thing we can say about the attitude that Vladimir Putin was showing today

02:44is that it certainly seems pretty combative,

02:46and it doesn't look like a man who's about to surprise the world

02:49by giving into any kind of compromise deal that the Americans have reportedly,

02:55although we don't know any details of it, negotiated with the Ukrainians and the Europeans

02:59and were supposed to present to the Russian president today.

03:01So everyone here is just expecting Vladimir Putin to say no to whatever they're proposing.

03:06And then the question is, what are the Americans going to do next?

03:09What attitude are they going to take?

03:10And who is going to come out on top, if you like, in what Ukrainians view as a battle

03:16between the likes of Steve Witkoff and the likes of Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State,

03:21in terms of what is the best approach to take towards Ukraine?

03:24I think the Ukrainians are quite pleased that Jared Kushner is also there with Steve Witkoff.

03:28Members of the Ukrainian negotiating delegations, both on and off the record,

03:34singled out Jared Kushner for praise.

03:36I think they were quite surprised by what they described as the constructive attitude that he brought to the talks.

03:41That is an interesting take, Gulliver, as always from you.

03:44The issue regarding what's happening on the ground now, Russia says it's taken two towns in the Donbass.

03:50What is the real situation?

03:52Three, excuse me.

03:53What is the real situation as you know it?

03:56Well, those three towns, actually only Pokrovsk is in the Donbass.

03:59It's probably the most important.

04:01The battle for Pokrovsk has been going on for 14 months in its most intense phase.

04:07It's a strategic town.

04:08It was a really important logistical hub.

04:11Its strategic importance, of course, has diminished gradually as its population has hollowed out

04:16and its buildings have been destroyed.

04:18It's a railway junction, but I don't suppose the railway is usable at the moment.

04:22The Russians say that they now control all of it.

04:23The Ukrainians absolutely deny this.

04:25I spoke today to Ukrainian military expert Alexander Kovalenko, who explained that the

04:30Russians do control the southern part of Pokrovsk to the south of the railway tracks.

04:35And that is the larger part of the town.

04:37But he said that the Ukrainians' hold on the northern part is still pretty strong.

04:41But what you've got to understand also is that this is a battle more and more being fought

04:44in the air.

04:45There are fewer troops on the ground.

04:47It's not always clear who controls what.

04:49There are varying assessments of how much of Pokrovsk the Russians control.

04:52But I haven't heard anyone credibly saying that they control 100 percent of it, except

04:57the Russians themselves.

04:58The other two towns Vladimir Putin mentioned are in Kharkiv region.

05:01It's Vovchansk in the north and Kupiansk in the east of Kharkiv region.

05:05In Vovchansk, the Russians clearly control the northern part of the town.

05:09Again, it's been significantly destroyed.

05:11But the Ukrainians say that they're still fighting there.

05:13And in Kupiansk, in the east of Kharkiv region, they've actually announced this evening,

05:17Colonel Siersky, the head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, that they've staged a counterattack

05:21in that town, Kupiansk, and forced the Russians out of part of it.

05:26I mean, we're getting to the stage where it's very much one side's word against the other.

05:30But what can we do except remind you that, on the whole, the Russians have been more economical

05:35with the truth than the Ukrainians.

05:36So the Ukrainians also do have a reputation for denying that they've lost control of a

05:40certain town when, in fact, they have.

05:42Indeed.

05:42And it's worth underlining for people, too, that peace could happen any time, of course,

05:46if Russia has decided to stop attacking Ukraine.

05:50Gulliver, as always, thank you very much indeed.

05:52Gulliver Craig, our correspondent in Kyiv.

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