Day 566 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

• Putin believes that Ukraine will negotiate for peace only when its resources are exhausted
• According to Putin, Trump's prosecution shows that the US system is rotten
• Putin: We were wrong to send Soviet tanks to Prague and Budapest. But Russia is not a colonizer
• The US is close to a decision to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles
• Kim Jong Un has arrived in Russia
• Peskov: Russia and North Korea are not interested in American statements
• Putin says Russian-Chinese relations are at an "unprecedented historical level”
• ISW: Russia recruits ex-Wagner prisoners to Putin's guard

Putin believes that Ukraine will negotiate for peace only when its resources are exhausted

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Ukraine was likely to start peace talks only when it had exhausted its resources and would use any potential cessation of hostilities to re-arm itself with help from the West, Reuters reported.

Putin, speaking at an economic forum in the Russian Pacific port city of Vladivostok, said Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russian forces had so far failed and that the Ukrainian army had suffered heavy losses.

"I have the impression that they want to bite off as much as they can and then, when their resources are close to zero, achieve a cessation of hostilities and start negotiations to replenish their resources and restore combat capability," Putin noted.

He said many potential mediators had asked him whether Russia was ready to stop fighting, but pointed out that Russia could hardly stop fighting when faced with a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

To have any chance of negotiations, Putin stressed, Ukraine must first lift its self-imposed legal ban on peace talks and explain what it wants.

"Then we'll see," he added.

Russia controls about 18 percent of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, which it took control of in 2022. According to Putin, the West's decision to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions is a crime, but while such supplies may prolong the war, they will not change its final outcome.

He also criticized the West's decision to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets.

Asked if Russia should introduce a new mandatory mobilization, Putin said that every day 1,000 to 1,500 Russians sign voluntary contracts to join the army.

In the past six or seven months, 270,000 people have signed voluntary contracts, Putin added, a number slightly lower than the 280,000 that former President Dmitry Medvedev indicated earlier this month.

According to Putin, Trump's prosecution shows that the US system is rotten

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the prosecution of former US President Donald Trump was politically motivated and showed that the US political system was "rotten", Reuters reported.

In comments at a forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok, Putin also said that significant changes in US-Russian relations were unlikely, regardless of who becomes the next president of the United States.

Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, is facing a series of criminal charges in which he is accused, among other things, of trying to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, won by Joe Biden.

"This shows all the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot claim to teach others about democracy," Putin emphasized.

"Everything that's going on with Trump is a politically motivated pursuit of someone's political rival, that's it. And it's being done in front of the American public and the entire world. They've just put their internal problems on display."

Putin continued: "In this sense, if they are trying to fight us in some way, that is good, because it shows who is fighting us. It shows, as they said back in Soviet times, 'the animal face of American imperialism' ".

As president, Trump was investigated for possible collusion with Russia, but special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation found insufficient evidence that the Trump campaign coordinated with Moscow to influence the 2016 election, in which he defeated Hillary Clinton.

Putin said the idea that Trump had special ties to Russia was "absolute nonsense."

He also said significant changes in the US-Russia relationship were unlikely regardless of who wins the US election in 2024, as the administration "drills into people's heads" that Russia is an existential adversary.

"No matter who is elected, the vector of the US's anti-Russian policy will hardly be affected," he added.

Relations between Moscow and Washington, already strained under Trump's presidency, fell to their lowest levels since the Cold War under Biden after Putin's decision in February 2022 to send tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine, sparking wide-ranging Western sanctions and Western military aid to Kyiv.

Putin: We were wrong to send Soviet tanks to Prague and Budapest. But Russia is not a colonizer

Russian President Vladimir Putin has described as a "mistake" the Soviet Union's decision to send tanks to Hungary and Czechoslovakia to crush mass protests during the Cold War, Reuters reported. Putin spoke at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

Before that, the head of state emphasized that Russia has never been a colonizer anywhere, unlike Western countries.

"Our cooperation has always been built on an equal basis or with a desire to help and support".

Minutes later, the president was asked to comment on the invasion of Budapest by Soviet troops in 1956 and Prague in 1968.

"It was a mistake. It's not right to do something in foreign policy that harms the interests of other nations," said the president, who in 2022 sent hundreds of thousands of troops to Ukraine, sparking Europe's biggest ground war since World War II.

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— snatch (@sna7c4) September 12, 2023

Putin assured that Ukraine's counteroffensive had failed and had produced "no results". He ignored the success of the Ukrainians of the past few weeks in breaking through the first Russian defense line near Robotyne.

The Russian president noted that 1,000 to 1,500 Russians sign voluntary contracts to enter the army every day. In the past six or seven months, 270,000 people have signed such voluntary contracts, Putin added. The head of state's data cannot be verified, but it is well known that since last summer the Russian army has been experiencing a shortage of soldiers - that is why hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens were forcibly mobilized, despite repeated assurances from the Kremlin that such a measure would not be taken.

The West began trying to portray Russia as an "evil empire" even before the term was used by 40th US President Ronald Reagan - perhaps as far back as the Middle Ages, after failed attempts at Catholicization, Putin said. And this message from the Russian president sounds implausible, not least because Russia became an "empire" in 1721 after the victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War, after which Peter the First became the first Russian emperor.

The US is close to a decision to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles

The United States is close to the decision to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles equipped with cluster munition. This was reported by US officials to Reuters. In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the war of exhaustion would require a fully militarized economy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that if the war of exhaustion was prolonged and the support of the allies weakened, Ukraine's economy would have to be laid on entirely military foundations. In an interview with the “Economist” almost 19 months after the war began, the president announced that he was "morally" ready for such a transition, but would discuss the idea with his people only if the weakness in the eyes of Western allies became a "trend". Zelensky also notes that in a long war, the country will lose more people, both on the front and as a result of emigration.

After being convinced of the efficiency of the battlefield from the cluster ammunition in recent months, US authorities are considering sending rockets to Ukraine loaded with such, some with a range of over 300 km. Currently, Ukraine has 155mm artillery weapons with a maximum range of 28 km, which can launch cluster ammunition with up to 48 explosives, notes Reuters, adding that if Washington officially decides to provide these rockets, they will quickly be sent to Kyiv.

At the same time, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has cooled Kyiv's hopes that Berlin will automatically deliver Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine if the United States begins to supply it with long-range tactical ballistic ATACMS. Taurus has a range of 500 kilometers and is fired by multipurpose fighter jets.

The Ministers of Defense of Estonia, Latvia and Germany have signed an agreement that the two Baltic countries will obtain jointly with German Iris-T German rocket systems with medium range for nearly 1 billion euros. Tallinn and Riga also entered the European Sky Shield Initiative, to which Berlin started last year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 19 are the countries that participate in it and are committed to building a common shield of German, American and Israeli missiles with small, medium and long-range.

Earlier, Ukrainian military intelligence reported that the Ukrainian forces had conquered drilling rigs near the coast of Crimea. The platforms have been under Russian control since 2015 - shortly after the annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Russia.

Kim Jong Un has arrived in Russia

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has arrived in Russia.

Kim left Pyongyang on Sunday on his personal train, accompanied by his foreign minister, the military and senior arms industry officials. They will take part in the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to arrive there today, and he will attend the main session of the forum. The meeting between the leaders of Russia and North Korea will take place in the coming days after the end of the Russian economic forum, the Kremlin announced.

According to a spokesman, bilateral relations and the situation in the region and the world will be discussed during the talks.

Peskov: Russia and North Korea are not interested in American statements

The Kremlin said that Russia and North Korea are not interested in US statements in their relations. Washington earlier issued warnings about Pyongyang's arms sales to Moscow ahead of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's visit to Russia.

“In our relations with our neighbors, including North Korea, the interests of our two countries are important to us, not Washington's warnings”, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The transfer of weapons from North Korea to Russia would be in violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions, the US State Department said, citing new sanctions ahead of an expected meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-un's armored train is now on Russian territory.

President Vladimir Putin will speak today at a major economic forum in Vladivostok, he will also meet with Chinese Vice President Zhang Guoqing.

Putin says Russian-Chinese relations are at an "unprecedented historical level”

Relations between China and Russia have reached an unprecedented historical level, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported, as quoted by Reuters.

"Relations between Russia and China have reached an absolutely unprecedented historical level in recent years," Putin said, as quoted by RIA. "Together we will continue this work in the future," he added.

ISW: Russia recruits ex-Wagner prisoners to Putin's guard

In Russia, ex-prisoners from Wagner are assigned to the Russian Guard (Rosgvardia), a structure that ensures public security in the country. As the report by the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) points out, this is likely done to further subjugate the remnants of the Wagner PMC, as well as to simultaneously strengthen the internal security apparatus of Russia, reports UNIAN.

It is noted that the Russian opposition publication iStories reported on September 11 that relatives of former Wagner prisoners said that some of their relatives had received invitations to serve in the Russian Guard. iStories noted that the Russian Guard was asking former Wagnerites to transfer security clearance and to provide documents for an official pardon, as well as documents for concluding contracts with PMC Wagner.

In addition, another serviceman from the Russian Guard stated that former Wagnerites serve in his unit, including those without military experience. Another Guardsman says his unit has sent former PMC Wagner fighters to guard "strategic sites" in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

ISW notes that the Russian Guard's possible active recruitment of former Wagner PMC fighters is noteworthy in the light of recent efforts by the Russian leadership to strengthen the Rosgvardiya's role as an internal security service following the Wagnerian armed uprising led by Yevgeny Prigozhin in June.

ISW previously reported the transfer of Grom units (elite special anti-narcotics units of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs) and heavy weapons to the Russian Guard following the uprising. The Russian Guard may be recruiting ex-PMC Wagner fighters to maximize its reserve for force formation, or perhaps for greater control over ex-Wagnerians in the hope of strengthening internal security after the uprising,” analysts say.

After the death of the head of PMC "Wagner" Yevgeny Prigozhin, a conflict broke out between the Russian special services for the assets of his empire. According to Western media, Russian foreign intelligence is likely to take over Prigozhin's media business, and mercenary operations will come under the control of the Ministry of Defense and the GRU.

It was previously reported that the Wagnerites, who refused to sign a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense, will become part of the PMC "GuardService" in Belarus - a group whose main task is to counter the opposition in the event of a negative scenario for Lukashenko.

Novinite is still the only Bulgarian media that publishes a summary of events and highlights related to the conflict, every single day. Our coverage began on day one - 24.02.2022 and will not stop until the war has concluded. Despite the pressure, our independent media will continue to provide its readers with accurate and up-to-date information. Thank you for your support! #stayinformed

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