Meeting with commanders of units participating in the special military operation

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Comrade officers! Good afternoon, comrades.

I am delighted to see everyone at this meeting, which is part of the inauguration events.

I would have been more than happy to see at this ceremony all our comrades-in-arms, who are now carrying out missions as part of the special military operation, who do not spare their health and, if need be, are ready to give their lives for Russia. Unfortunately, this is impossible, because this refers to hundreds of thousands of people. But I would like to take this opportunity to ask you to extend my best wishes of success and victory to them.

We have ambitious goals for the country's economic development, because the economy is what provides the foundation for our further achievements - we must all understand this - as well as social development, strengthening Russian families, improving healthcare, education and other domains. And we have all the resources, we absolutely have everything we need to ensure that all these objectives are fully accomplished, but only on one condition - if you are successful on the battlefield. This is the key today. We all understand this, the whole country understands this, and therefore, you see that the whole country supports you.

Today I asked the Defence Minister to invite the commanders of various army units, commanders of regiments, brigades, divisions and armies that have shown exceptional results most recently during the special military operation. I would like to thank you personally for your courage, for your outstanding ability to command your troops. I would like to ask you to wish the best of luck on my behalf to all your subordinates in the combat missions they are carrying out in the interests of the Fatherland.

One of our friends present here celebrates his birthday today. The cameras will complete filming now, and I will personally wish you a happy birthday - this is the first thing.

Secondly, I have asked to put up the Presidential Standards there on the table, as souvenirs. They are personalised and have numbers on them - I wanted to give them to you as a token from our meeting today.

Meetings like this are certainly always important to me because, as a rule, they include candid conversations. I very much hope to have just such a conversation with you about what is happening on the battlefield and what else needs to be done to make our combat units' actions even more successful and minimise losses, and how, to ensure that we achieve every objective that our Fatherland demands. This is what I would like to say in the beginning.

Mr Shoigu, if you have anything to add, go ahead. After that, we will ask the camera crews to leave and talk in an informal and relaxed atmosphere.

Please, if you have anything to say, go ahead.

To be continued.

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