Russian President Vladimir Putin called his “special military operation” in Ukraine a “war” for the first time since he launched a full-scale invasion into Russia’s neighbor nearly 10 months ago.
“Our goal is not to spin this flywheel of a military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” Putin said at a televised news conference on Thursday, according to The Washington Post. “This is what we are striving for.”
Putin had previously used the term “special military operation” to describe the war in Ukraine and effectively made it illegal to call the invasion a “war,” reportedly jailing people in Russia for using similar language.
Despite the Russian president’s claim that he aims to “end this war,” U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday that Putin is “obviously not interested in diplomacy right now.”
“Quite the contrary,” Kirby said. “He’s interested in killing more civilian Ukrainians and knocking out the lights and knocking out the heat as the winter approaches.”
The change in language came in the wake of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s historic visit to Washington, D.C., earlier this week.
Before addressing Congress on Wednesday night, Zelensky joined President Biden at the White House, where the U.S. president reiterated his support for Ukraine and announced another $1.85 billion in military assistance for the country, including the Patriot missile system.