Putin oversees launch of new Russian warships, submarines amid Ukraine war

Russian President Vladimir Putin has overseen the commissioning of new warships and vowed to further strengthen his country’s navy.

The president gave the green light for Russian flags to be hoisted on the new vessels via video link on Thursday.

The newly commissioned vessels include a corvette, a minesweeper and the Generalissimus Suvorov nuclear submarine. Another submarine of the same type, Emperor Alexander III, was launched during Thursday’s ceremony. The navy plans to commission it following trials.

“We will speed up and increase the volumes of construction of ships of various projects, equip them with the most modern weapons, and conduct the operational and combat training using the experience received during the special military operation,” Putin said.

"All in all, everything to reliably ensure Russia's security, the protection of our national interests in the world ocean."

In recent years, Putin has made strengthening his armed forces a top priority, equipping the navy with new warships and adding hypersonic missiles.

US, NATO directly involved in Ukraine war: Russia’s Lavrov

Kiev

However, Russia has faced a series of setbacks on the ground in Ukraine, which has received weapons from the West.

Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West of becoming directly involved in the Ukraine war by supplying the country with weapons and training its soldiers.

Russia says the operation in Ukraine has been in order to defend the pro-Russia population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk against alleged persecution by Kiev. Ever since the war began, Kiev's allies, led by the United States and Britain, have been supplying Ukraine with weapons, a step that Russia says would prolong the conflict.

Russia says its objective of war is to demilitarize the breakaway Ukrainian regions with ethnic Russian populations. Since the start of the war, the United States and Europe have slapped waves of sanctions on Moscow and have been assisting Ukraine with financial and military assistance.

President Putin said on Sunday he was ready to negotiate “about acceptable solutions” regarding the war. Moscow says it is after a potential diplomatic settlement in Ukraine.

Last week, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Ukrainian president and his American counterpart were turning a deaf ear to “Russia's concerns.”

The Kremlin has dismissed a recently released peace plan by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying proposals to end the protracted war must take into account “today’s realities” of four Ukrainian regions that recently joined Russia.

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