How did they justify this statement? A press release from Putin.

Effectively, yes.

The consortium just linked to the original story from Indian Punchline (the author's personal blog) where the author quoted the statement from a TASS article.

It's not hard hitting, factual news. It's an OpEd piece from a blogger.

If we wrapped Robert Parry's corpse with copper wire and surrounded his casket with magnets, we could probably power a small city with the electricity from him turning over in his grave at how far Consortium News has fallen in publishing articles like this.

Even in the absence of any other considerations, Russia can grind Ukraine down. The US needed an effective counteroffensive, because a war of attrition only benefits Russia. Unfortunately, that counteroffensive was an abject failure.

What are you asking? How can anyone believe that the USA and NATO are facing defeat in Ukraine? Is that your question?

Also, do you think the president of a massive country personally issues press releases?