From the Kremlin’s point of view, everything is going according to plan

In an interview, Kremlin spokesman Peskov dismissed supply problems for the Russian units. Things are going according to plan in Ukraine, nobody expected a quick offensive.

Of course, a nuclear option is not off the table, but nuclear weapons would only be an option for Russia if the country was threatened, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in an interview with the US news channel CNN in English.

But in the end President Vladimir Putin said nothing new, the criteria for using nuclear weapons have been known and published for a long time, and nothing has changed.

Peskov was also asked by CNN what goals the Russian army had achieved in Ukraine for President Putin. He admitted that the goals had not been achieved. But everything is going according to plan and nobody expected that it could be done in a few days. It is a serious operation with serious tasks.

USA reports of supply bottlenecks

On the other hand, US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said that according to US intelligence, the Russian army is facing enormous logistical difficulties.

“We know that, to the best of their ability, they continue to have problems with gas and that they still have difficulties with eating,” Kirby said. The Russians are “increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress”.

Peskow names war goals

In an interview, Peskow described such reports as false and part of an information war. Peskov underlined what Putin considered a condition for an end to the war, even if he did not use the word war: the smashing of the Ukrainian military and a neutral Ukraine.

He also cited the recognition of the eastern Ukrainian territories, which had declared independence, and Crimea as irreversibly Russian.

Russia only attacks military targets

The Kremlin spokesman also said that only military targets were attacked in Ukraine, Russian soldiers would not shoot at civilians. Even when confronted with television reports of cities destroyed and children killed, he stuck to this assertion. He accused Ukraine of using civilians as a shield.