Russian President Says West Should Meet On Battlefield

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Russia’s president suggested Friday that his nation’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to World War Three and challenged the West to fight his army.

He said Russia was “just getting started in Ukraine” and called on the West to meet on the battlefield. He condemned Western involvement in the war and claimed his forces had not “started anything yet in earnest.”

His comments came after Ukraine’s military raised the national flag on a recaptured Black Sea island, but the nation lost a key ally as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned.

Thursday’s move was a defiant act against Moscow as Russian troops seemed determined to capture all of the eastern Donbas region, Ukraine’s industrial heartland, despite a mounting death toll on both sides.

Russia abandoned Snake Island at the end of June, leaving what had become a symbol of Ukraine’s refusal to bend to Russia’s will.

But Ukraine lost an ally in its ongoing struggle against the Russian invasion. Yet Prime Minister Johnson said Britain’s support for Ukraine would continue despite his resignation.

MOSCOW REACTS

Moscow responded quickly to Ukraine’s defiant flag-raising ceremony on Snake Island, located about 140 kilometers (87 miles) south of the Ukrainian port of Odesa.

Its warplanes struck the strategic island shortly afterward and destroyed part of the Ukrainian detachment there.

Images released by Ukraine on Thursday showed three Ukrainian soldiers raising the blue and yellow national flag on a patch of ground next to the remains of a flattened building.

And a defiant Putin made clear he was ready for battle and received support from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. The Brazilian leader stressed that the economic sanctions imposed by the West against Russia have not worked.

“The economic barriers that the United States and Europe imposed against Russia did not work,” Bolsonaro told supporters on Thursday.

Bolsonaro said that his stance allowed him to acquire fertilizers, a key input for Brazil’s vast agricultural sector, from Russia. He also said Russia shared Brazil’s concerns over the “sovereignty” of the Amazon.

Earlier Thursday, Putin said it was obvious that western sanctions were creating difficulties, “but not at all what the initiators of the economic blitzkrieg against Russia were counting on.”

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