Meeting with permanent members of the Security Council

The meeting
was attended by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin Mishustin MikhailPrime Minister of the Russian Federation , Federation Council Speaker
Valentina Matviyenko Matviyenko ValentinaChairwoman of the Council of Federation , State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin Volodin VyacheslavChairman of the State Duma , Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino Vaino AntonChief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office , Secretary of the Security
Council Nikolai Patrushev Patrushev NikolaiAide to the President , Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev Kolokoltsev VladimirInterior Minister of the Russian Federation , Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov Lavrov SergeiMinister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation , Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu Shoigu SergeiSecretary of the Russian Federation Security Council , Director of the Federal
Security Service Alexander Bortnikov Bortnikov AlexanderDirector of the Federal Security Service , Director of the Foreign Intelligence
Service Sergei Naryshkin Naryshkin SergeiDirector of the Foreign Intelligence Service , and Special Presidential Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology and Transport Sergei Ivanov Ivanov SergeiSpecial Presidential Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology and Transport .
* * *
President
of Russia
Vladimir Putin: Good
afternoon, colleagues.
As you
know, today the presidential election started in our country in accordance with
the Constitution of Russia.
To disrupt the election process and intimidate people, at least in the areas bordering Ukraine, the neo-Nazi Kiev regime has planned and is trying to carry
out a number of demonstrative criminal armed actions. It is primarily striking civilian
residential areas in Russian territory.
About 95 percent
of the enemy missiles and shells are being destroyed by our air defence
systems. Nevertheless, unfortunately, we still have civilian casualties. All of them, and their families, will be given every necessary support and assistance.
These enemy strikes do not and will not go unpunished.
In addition,
starting March 12 of this year and until now, our adversary has made several attempts
to enter and gain a foothold on our territory, mostly by using special units,
foreign mercenaries and support forces from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They have
carried out several subversive terrorist attacks – four in the Belgorod
direction and one in the Kursk
direction – with the aim of entering Russian territory and gaining a foothold
on it.
The enemy used
the following forces and equipment: over 2,500 personnel, 35 tanks, and about
40 combat vehicles. It did not achieve success in a single direction. It was
rebuffed and forced to retreat, or flee, to be more precise, with heavy losses.
The adversary lost about 60 percent of its personnel and over 50 percent of its
armoured vehicles.
As I said earlier,
these militarily senseless and humanitarianly criminal actions were aimed at disrupting
the elections for the President of Russia.
I am confident – our people, the people of Russia
will respond to this with even greater cohesion. Who did they decide to scare? The Russian people? The multi-ethnic people of Russia? This has never happened and,
I know, will never happen.
One more possible
goal for these attacks is to sidetrack the attention of their own people and the people in other countries whom the Kiev
regime is trying to beg, humiliatingly, for money or any kind of handout. The regime
also wants to divert attention from the real state of affairs at the battle line
where the Russian Armed Forces are confidently holding the initiative and showing
courage and heroism, fulfilling their combat missions.
They are thereby
creating the necessary, basic conditions for ensuring the security of Russia,
the domestic political stability of our state and, eventually for reaching our national
development goals, for the future of our Motherland, which will certainly be
ensured despite any attempt by our enemies and ill-wishers.
I would like
to ask the Defence Minister [Sergei Shoigu] to report on the current situation.

Go ahead
please.
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