Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he expects his preparation of armed force reservists for battle in Ukraine to be finished in around fourteen days, permitting him to end a disagreeable and turbulent call-up intended to counter Ukrainian combat zone gains and cement his unlawful extension of involved region.

Putin — confronting homegrown discontent and military misfortunes in an adjoining nation furnished with progressively progressed Western weapons — likewise told journalists he doesn’t lament beginning the contention and “didn’t decide to obliterate Ukraine” when he requested Russian soldiers to attack almost eight months prior.

“What’s going on today is horrendous, to say the least,” he said subsequent to going to a highest point of the Federation of Free States in Kazakhstan’s capital. “However, we would have had this a little later, just under more terrible circumstances for us, that’s it in a nutshell. So my activities are right and opportune.”

Russia’s difficulties in achieving its war aims have become apparent in one of the four Ukrainian regions Putin illegally claimed as Russian territory last month. Anticipating an advance by Ukrainian forces, Moscow-installed authorities in the Kherson region urged residents to flee Friday.