MOSCOW, October 27. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he did not believe that the enemy was underestimated in Ukraine.

"No," the Russian leader said, replying to a corresponding question at a plenary session of the Valdai International Discussion Club.

"Do you know what the point is? The point is that we saw what was happening: a fortified area was being created quite deep inside Donbass for eight years." "We understood perfectly well and were well aware that this process would continue and the longer, the worse and the more difficult and the more dangerous for us, and that we would sustain heavier casualties," Putin pointed out.

"These are the considerations that we took into account. NATO’s exploitation of the territory was in full swing. And it continues now and it proceeded at that time as well," he added.

"These strongholds would have appeared not only along today’s engagement line in Donbass. They would have appeared everywhere. That is the point," Putin said.

"Ukraine was hoarding weapons," the Russian leader said.

"And now that we see our troops squeezing Donbass from the south and the north, this is one situation, and had they [the Kiev regime] created strongholds across the country for several more years there, carried out training and hoarded weapon systems that had never been there before - and many of them are still absent - the situation for Russia would have been quite different even from the standpoint of carrying out this special military operation," Putin emphasized.