President Vladimir Putin said yesterday peace talks with Ukraine had hit a dead end, using his first public comments on the conflict in more than a week to vow that his troops would win and to goad the West for failing to bring Moscow to heel.

Addressing the war in public for the first time since Russian forces retreated from northern Ukraine after they were halted at the gates of Kyiv, Putin promised Russia would achieve all of its "noble" aims in Ukraine.

In the strongest signal to date that the war will grind on for longer, Putin said Kyiv derailed peace talks by...