Vladimir Putin in rare 1st interview to American journalist after war says 'defeating Russia in Ukraine is impossible'

Tribune Web Desk

Chandigarh, February 9

President Vladimir Putin has said that that defeating Russia in Ukraine was “impossible" and NATO must accept Moscow’s territorial gains there.

In an interview posted on Thursday, Putin told US talk show host Tucker Carlson, “There has been the uproar and screaming about inflicting a strategic defeat to Russia on the battlefield."

Putin defended his decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022, adding that the West now realises that Russia will not be defeated, despite help from Western countries.

“In my opinion, it is impossible by definition. It is never going to happen."

This was Putin’s rare and first interview with a Western media figure since the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine two years ago. Carlson earlier released a video from Moscow on Tuesday in which he said he would be interviewing Putin, who has heavily limited his contact with international media since February 2022.

Putin granted the interview to US television host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday, the Kremlin said, his first to an American journalist since before Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had agreed to the Carlson interview because the approach of the former Fox News host differed from the "one-sided" reporting of the Ukraine conflict by many Western news outlets.

"When it comes to the countries of the collective West, the large network media, TV channels, (and) large newspapers can in no way boast of even trying to at least look impartial in terms of coverage," Peskov told a regular news briefing on Wednesday.

"These are all media outlets that take an exceptionally one-sided position. Of course, there is no desire to communicate with such media, and it hardly makes sense, and it is unlikely that it will be useful."

Asked directly why Carlson had landed an interview with Putin, Peskov said the American journalist's approach was "in no way pro-Russian, it is not pro-Ukrainian - it is pro-American".

The interview was aired on Thursday.

Putin, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 2022, was last formally interviewed by a US media outlet in October 2021, when CNBC's Hadley Gamble spoke to him, though he has since spoken to Russian, Chinese and Kazakh media.

Many Western media organisations have left Moscow or shuttered their operations due to onerous media laws passed shortly after the war. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, an American citizen, was detained on spying charges in March 2023.

Carlson said in a post on X on Tuesday that the interview would enable Americans to understand Russia's view of the war.

"We are not here because we love Vladimir Putin....We are not encouraging you to agree with what Putin may say in this interview, but we are urging you to watch it. You should know as much as you can," he said.

Putin says he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine to safeguard Russia's national security against what he casts as a hostile West. Kyiv and its Western allies say it is an unprovoked war of aggression and imperial-style land grab.

Carlson, who has said much Western media coverage of the war is biased in Kyiv's favour, said he had also asked Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for an interview.

With Reuters inputs

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