Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the BRICS summit about the successes of the Russian military in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the “crisis” in Ukraine was discussed in all of Putin’s bilateral meetings at the international organization’s summit.
Putin “stressed the reluctance of the Ukrainian side to engage in any kind of talks and the very, very positive momentum for the Russian forces on the front,” Peskov said, according to Russian News Agency reports.
Peskov said Putin had spoken individually with the leaders of China, India, South Africa 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 forces have been gradually pushing back the exhausted Ukrainian army into the east of the country for months.
Russia’s advance has recently stalled, partly due to worsening weather conditions and increasing difficulties in compensating for losses.
According to the Kremlin, more than twenty international leaders, mainly from Africa, Latin America and Asia, have traveled 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 thirty countries want to join the BRICS.
The original members of the BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – from which the organization takes its acronym – 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 South and the East in strengthening their contacts with the BRICS,” Putin said. But he added that expansion should not come at the expense of the alliance’s efficiency.
The Russian president wants to develop the 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 world stability and security, Putin claimed.
