Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken of the successes of the Russian army in Ukraine at the BRICS summit, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
The president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Ukraine “crisis” has featured in all of Putin’s bilateral meetings at the international organization’s summit.
Putin “emphasized the Ukrainian side’s unwillingness to engage in any kind of talks and the very, very positive momentum for the Russian armed forces on the front,” said Peskov, according to Russian news agency reports.
Peskov said Putin had spoken individually with the leaders of China, India, South African and Egypt on the first day of the summit on Tuesday.
Russia currently controls less territory in Ukraine than it did shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. However, Russian troops have been gradually pushing the exhausted Ukrainian army back in the east of the country for months.
Russia’s advance has recently stagnated, in part due to worsening weather conditions and growing difficulties in substituting for losses.
According to the Kremlin, more than 20 international leaders, mainly from Africa, Latin America and Asia, have travelled to the Russian city of Kazan for the BRICS summit, which runs until Thursday.
Putin boasts of aspiring BRICS members
Putin said on Wednesday that more than 30 countries want to join BRICS.
The original members of BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – from which the organization derives its abbreviation – have been joined this year by Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.
“It would undoubtedly be wrong to ignore the unprecedented interest of the countries of the Global South and east in strengthening their contacts with BRICS,” Putin said. But he added that an expansion should not come at the expense of the alliance’s efficiency.
The Russian president wants to develop BRICS into a counterweight to the West. He says the organization deals with security policy, as well as economic and financial issues.
The BRICS members share the same values and contribute to stability and security in the world, Putin claimed.
