Russia insists war in Ukraine will continue until all the goals are met

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Russia insists war in Ukraine will continue until all the goals are met

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a virtual meeting on economic issues in Moscow on Sept. 12. Photo: Gavril Grigorov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images Despite facing a , the Kremlin insisted on Monday that Russia will continue to wage its war in Ukraine until all its military goals have been achieved. The big picture: In one of its greatest setbacks of the war so far, Russian troops over the weekend were forced to withdraw from the areas surrounding Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, as into the region's northern, southern and eastern flanks.Ukraine's military chief Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi announced on Sunday that Ukraine had recaptured 3,000 square kilometers (1,158 square miles) of territory since the start of the month.Ukraine's military announced on Monday that it had reclaimed roughly 500 square kilometers of territory in the , the reported. What they're saying: Russia's so-called special military operation "will continue until all the goals that were originally set are achieved," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday, the Financial Times .Russian President Vladimir Putin "is in constant, round-the-clock communication with the minister of defense, and with all the military commanders," Peskov added.Peskov evaded a question about whether Putin still had confidence in his military leaders in light of the Ukrainian offensive, per . Putin himself appeared on television later Monday to chair a meeting on the economy but did not acknowledge the military setbacks.Instead, he touted Russia's response to Western sanctions. "The economic blitzkrieg tactics, the onslaught they were counting on, did not work — this is already obvious to everyone, and to them too," he said, according to Reuters.

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