After nearly four years of fiscal overreach caused by injecting trillions of rubles into the Russian economy, the Kremlin can no longer disguise its distress.

Ukraine would be reduced to Russia ’s “tethered goat” if Trump’s peace plan is implemented, according to a former head of MI6. Sir Alex Younger said the US president’s proposal was "lopsided" in favour of Russia and would "almost guarantee" another invasion of Ukraine by Putin.

Igor Sechin, one of the most influential men in Russia's energy sector, said on Tuesday that sanctions imposed by the United States, European powers and their allies on Russia and China will trigger an economic crisis in the West.

The president also took aim at former President Joe Biden, arguing that Putin only attacked Ukraine because Biden was president at the time.