- "We are moving forward, not at a very fast pace, but gradually we are taking more and more territory," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Putin breaks his silence after the Ukrainian counterattack: "Our offensive does not stop"

The latest trend in the conflict in Ukraine, which began last February when Russia decided to invade the country, is that local forces are regaining ground against an invading army that has lost initial momentum in what looked like it was going to be a short war.

After this Ukrainian impulse, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has broken his silence and has spoken for the first time since the change of direction in the conflict in Ukraine became known.

"Our offensive operation in Donbas does not stop. They are advancing, not at a very fast pace, but gradually they are taking more and more territory," Putin said after the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, in remarks collected by the DailyMail.

Already on Friday, a smiling Putin warned of a "more serious" response if his forces continued to be bowed down in Ukraine: "The Kyiv authorities have announced that they have started an active counteroffensive operation. We will see how it goes and how it ends," he said with a smile in the Uzbek capital of Samarkand.

"In fact, we have been quite restrained in our response for now. Recently, the Russian military has inflicted a couple of delicate blows. Let's say they were a warning. If the situation continues to develop like this, then the response will be more serious," he said.

"I remind you that the Russian army is not fighting in its entirety... Only the professional army is fighting," Putin added, thus fueling rumors of full mobilization, which would mean that everyone over the age of 18 could be called up.

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