Iran Press/ Europe: Russian President Vladimir Putin promised on Wednesday to give his armed forces anything they asked for to support the military campaign in Ukraine.
Putin told senior military officials that "the Russian army had to learn from and fix the problems it had suffered in Ukraine, and stressed that "there were no financial limits on what the government would provide in terms of equipment and hardware for war in Ukraine as the conflict nearing the end of its 10th month.
"We have no funding restrictions. The country and the government are providing everything that the army asks for," he said.
Putin said Russia's nuclear arsenal is the fundamental guarantor of its sovereignty, pledging that new weapons would soon enter into service.
"We will continue to maintain and improve the combat-readiness of our nuclear triad. This is the main guarantee of preserving our sovereignty and territorial integrity, strategic parity, and the general balance of power in the world," Putin said.
The nuclear triad comprises missiles fired from aircraft, submarines, ground-based mobile launchers, and silos.
Putin's remarks come when Ukraine's President Zelenskyy is going to meet Joe Biden at the White House, where he's set to make an address to Congress.
It's the first time he's left the country since Russia invaded ten months ago.
Hailing Russian soldiers and defense chiefs as "heroes," he said Russia needed to take special note of the importance of drones in the conflict.
He added that Russia's Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile - dubbed "Satan II" and capable of mounting nuclear strikes against the United States - will be ready for deployment soon.
Nearly ten months from its Feb. 24 invasion, Russia took control of a vast swathe of eastern and southern Ukraine along a front stretching some 1,100 km but has suffered a series of defeats that have swung the war's momentum in favor of its smaller adversary.
The Kremlin warned Wednesday that increasing the supply of US arms to Kyiv would aggravate the conflict.
"Weapon supplies (by the US) continue, the assortment of supplied weapons is expanding. All this, of course, leads to an aggravation of the conflict and, in fact, does not bode well for Ukraine," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov's comments were the first official Russian reaction to the news that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was heading to Washington for a summit with US President Joe Biden.
The trip would be Zelensky's first known foreign trip since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion triggered a war that has killed thousands and laid waste to towns and cities across Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Zelensky expected to leave Washington with pledges of a massive $1.8 billion military aid package to help his country defend itself from Russian aggression.
The latest military hardware from the US would include, for the first time, a Patriot missile battery and precision-guided bombs for fighter jets, US officials said Tuesday.
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