Putin urges his government to ‘speed up’ decision-making in Ukraine war
By Tara John and Katharina Krebs, CNN
Russian President Vladimir Putin called his government to “speed up” decision-making and manufacturing of military equipment as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine goes into its ninth month.
“Now, we are also faced with the need to speed up resolution of the issues related to the provision of a special military operation and related to the fight against those restrictions in the economic sphere that we have encountered,” Putin said Tuesday, speaking to the first meeting of the newly formed Coordination Council.
Putin on October 20 created the Coordination Council headed by the country’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to meet the needs of the Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
Russia’s goals cannot be met without “broad and deep coordination between all areas of activity, all structures, all ministries, departments, both the power bloc and the economic bloc, and the regions of the Russian Federation. It is precisely for this that the Coordination Council was created,” he added.
The Russian leader warned that if Moscow’s operation is carried out within the framework of “standard bureaucratic procedures” there will be “no result,” and stressed that Russian soldiers’ equipment should be “efficient and modern.”
His comments on Tuesday appeared to acknowledge the difficulties Russia has faced since it launched the invasion, failing in its attempt to capture the Ukranian capital Kyiv.
Prime Minister Mishustin said in the meeting that Russia’s partial mobilization necessitated an increased production of clothing and protective equipment.
Ukraine forces have in the meantime continued their advance against the Russian military, pushing through several parts of the Kherson region.
Ukraine’s military claimed Tuesday that Russian forces in occupied Kherson are preparing “defensive positions” along the east bank of the Dnipro river and leaving small pathways for a “potential retreat” from the western bank. CNN cannot confirm the Ukrainian military’s claim.
Russia has responded to Ukraine’s counteroffensive with a relentless bombing campaign, striking energy and civilian infrastructure and sowing terror in Ukrainian cities far from the frontlines of the war.
Moscow this week accused Ukraine, without evidence, of planning to use a so-called dirty bomb. The allegation has been dismissed by Kyiv and its Western allies as a false-flag operation that Moscow could use as a pretext to escalate the Kremlin’s war against its neighbor.
The-CNN-Wire
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