Putin has said peace talks with Ukraine have hit a “dead-end” as he vowed to continue his unprovoked invasion of the country despite significant Russian losses.
Russian forces have been forced into a major withdrawal of areas around Kyiv after being pushed back by Ukrainian forces but they are now expected to focus military efforts on the eastern Donbas region.
Speaking Tuesday, Putin insisted the war would continue until “its full completion and the fulfilment of the tasks that have been set.”
“We have again returned to a dead-end situation for us,” Putin, who has ruled Russia since 1999, told a news briefing during a visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Asked by Russian space agency workers if the operation in Ukraine would achieve its goals, Putin said: “Absolutely. I don’t have any doubt at all.”
He accused Ukraine of derailing peace talks by what he said were fake claims of Russian war crimes.
The images of civilians killed and reports of rape have shocked the world.
Putin dismissed the West's sanctions as a failure.
He said: “That Blitzkrieg on which our foes were counting did not work. The United States is ready to fight with Russia until the last Ukrainian - that is the way it is.”
The Russian leader, who had frequently appeared on Russian television in the early days of the war, had largely retreated from public view since the withdrawal from northern Ukraine two weeks ago.
His only public appearance in the past week was at the funeral of a nationalist lawmaker where he did not directly address the war.
In the face of stiff resistance by Ukrainian forces bolstered by Western weapons, Putin’s men have increasingly relied on bombarding cities which has left thousands of people dead.
The war has also driven more than 10 million Ukrainians from their homes, including nearly two-thirds of all children.
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Moscow's retreat from cities and towns around the capital, Kyiv, led to the discovery of large numbers of apparently massacred civilians.
In the suburb of Bucha, the mayor said 403 bodies have been found.
Anatoliy Fedoruk said he feared the toll would rise as minesweepers comb through the area.
Ukraine's prosecutor-general's office said Tuesday that it was also looking into events in the Brovary district which lies to the northeast.
The prosecutor's office said the bodies of six civilians had been found with gunshot wounds in a basement in the village of Shevchenkove and that Russian forces were believed to be responsible.
