Putin warns he's ready to arm allies with 'the most modern weapons'

Putin warns he is ready to arm his allies with ‘the most modern types of weapons’ as he boasts of Russia’s military capabilities

  • Putin uses speech at Army-2022 expo to sell arms to militaries from 72 nations
  • He boasted that Russia’s ‘modern’ weapons ‘used more than once in real combat’
  • Kremlin leader also claimed they’re ‘years, if not decades’ ahead of enemy arms 
  • Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, near six-month mark, cursed by series of failures
  • Sputtering military technology has worried allied buyers India, Egypt and China

Vladimir Putin has boasted that Russian weapons are ‘decades’ ahead of Western rivals’ in a speech at an arms expo in Moscow.

Delegations from more than 70 countries are attending Army-2022 to take advantage of good deals on Russian kit.

Allies and buyers of Russian hardware have expressed concern as Putin’s tanks, warships and planes continue to drop like flies in Ukraine.

Putin vowed: ‘[We] are ready to offer our allies the most modern types of weapons, from small arms to armored vehicles and artillery to combat aviation and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Putin (pictured today) used the speech to pitch Russian arms to a number of concerned allies

Putin is pictured speaking at Patriot Congress and Exhibition Centre outside Moscow today

Putin stands with Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu on stage in Moscow this afternoon

‘Almost all of them have been used more than once in real combat operations.

‘Many of them are years, if not decades, ahead of their foreign counterparts. 

‘And in terms of tactical and technical characteristics they are significantly superior to them.’

He was speaking nearly six months into Russia’s war in Ukraine, where Moscow has suffered repeated setbacks and heavy losses.

Putin also spoke positively of the war despite a flurry of large-scale setbacks including the apparent destruction of a key mercenary group’s HQ with American HIMARS missiles.

Putin celebrated the Russian army’s supposed success in eastern Ukraine, without evidence

Putin cut a relaxed figure as he boasted about his nation’s ‘modern’ and ‘advanced’ weaponry

A Ukrainian Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile is pictured on the ground in Russia

A Ukrainian Grad missile fires at Russian targets in Kharkiv, northern Ukraine earlier this month

Russian soldiers are seen firing rockets and grenades at targets in Ukraine during the war


Before and after: a Russian T-90 tank is obliterated by a Ukrainian rocket. In July, Egypt bought 500 of the armoured vehicles. India has also bought 450, with Algeria another purchaser

The Kremlin leader claimed Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine ‘are honorably fulfilling their duty’.

Kim Jong Un says Putin vowed to forge closer bond with North Korea

Vladimir Putin told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the two countries will ‘expand the comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations with common efforts,’ Pyongyang’s state media reported today.

In a letter to Kim for the country’s liberation day, Putin said closer ties would be in both countries’ interests and help strengthen the security and stability of the Korean peninsula and the Northeastern Asian region.

Kim also sent a letter to Putin saying Russian-North Korean friendship had been forged in World War II with victory over Japan, which had occupied the Korean peninsula.

Lovebirds: Kim and Putin are pictured together at a summit in Vladivostok, April 2019

The ‘strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity’ between the two countries has since reached a new level is their common efforts to frustrate threats and provocations from hostile military forces, Kim said in the letter. 

State media KCNA did not identify the hostile forces, but it has typically used that term to refer to the United States and its allies.

The pair met at a summit in Russia in 2019. 

North Korea in July recognized two Russian-backed breakaway ‘people’s republics’ in eastern Ukraine as independent states. Officials raised the prospect of North Korean workers being sent to meet labour shortages.

Ukraine immediately severed relations with Pyongyang.

‘They are fighting for Russia’, he said, ‘[and] for a peaceful life in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Step by step, they liberate the Donbas.’

Western military analysts say the poor performance of Russian troops and weaponry could make its arms exports less attractive to potential buyers.

Allies such as India and Egypt have heavily relied on its technology in the past.

In July, Egypt bought 500 Russian T-90 tanks. 

India has purchased more than 450 and Algeria has also bought T-90 tanks, making them the most advanced military vehicle found in Africa. 

India, China and Egypt accounted for nearly two-thirds of Russian arms sales from 2017 to 2021, Bloomberg reported.

Its sluggish development of competitive drones, easily destroyed T-90 tanks, and missing-in-action T-14 Armata have sent worrying signals to all three partners.

Competitors Japan, South Korea, Turkey or some European countries could pose a threat to Russia’s arms industry as non-aggressors in frosty US-China relations.

Putin’s speech came as a Kremlin foreign ministry spokesperson said Russia will do ‘everything necessary’ to enable nuclear specialists to attend the fiercely fought-over Zaporizhzhia power station in southern Ukraine, which has been occupied by Russia.

Scientists from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be able to visit the plant, Maria Zakharova promised today.

“In close cooperation with the Agency and its leadership, we will do everything necessary for the IAEA specialists to be at the station and give a truthful assessment of the destructive actions of the Ukrainian side,” Zakharova said.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe, was captured by Russia early on in its invasion of Ukraine. 

The plant has come under shelling in recent days, with both Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of risking a nuclear accident.

Kyiv has accused Russia of firing at Ukrainian towns from the site in the knowledge that its forces would not return fire at one of the world’s ten biggest nuclear sites.

Moscow has reportedly shelled the area, blaming Ukraine without evidence.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency has said the shelling of Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s biggest nuclear power station, could cause a nuclear disaster.

But it has so far been unable to arrange the conditions for an inspection.

Kyiv and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have called for the area to be demilitarized, and the Group of Seven major economies have urged Russia to return it to Ukraine.

But senior Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, chair of the lower house’s foreign affairs committee, said the idea of returning the plant to the control of Ukrainians was ‘a ‘mockery from the point of view of ensuring safety.’

‘And all the statements of the G7 foreign ministers in support of their demands are nothing but ‘sponsorship of nuclear terrorism’,’ he added on his Telegram channel.

Russia seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in March after invading Ukraine on Feb. 24, but the site is still being operated by its Ukrainian staff.

Kyiv said the complex had been struck five times on Thursday, including near where radioactive materials are stored.

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