After months of blistering assessments from inside and outside Russia that his war effort in Ukraine lacked even the basic resources necessary to prevail, President Vladimir Putin delivered his own verdict on that criticism on Wednesday: It’s valid.

In an unusual acknowledgment of Russia’s shortcomings in a speech at the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, the Russian leader ticked off a list of areas his military must improve on. He declared that drones must be able to communicate targeting information through encrypted channels “in real time.” He said the military needed to “improve the command and control system” and its ability to strike back at enemy artillery.

And he nodded to the widespread reports of soldiers’ being sent to the front without basic equipment, instructing officers to pay attention to “medical kits, food, dry rations, uniforms, footwear, protective helmets and bulletproof vests.”

But far from an admission of defeat, Putin’s reference to his army’s woes reflected his defiant message on a day when Ukraine’s president put on a show of unity with the United States: Russia will keep fighting.

“We have no limits in terms of financing,” Putin said, insisting that Russia eventually would prevail in Ukraine. “The country and the government are providing everything that the army asks for — everything.”

Even as Ukraine’s resistance captured the global spotlight with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s trip to Washington, Putin staged a showy gathering of his own, addressing members of Parliament and even Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox Church for a speech at an annual meeting of the military’s top brass.

Comparing the Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine to “the heroes” who warded off Napoleon’s invading army in 1812 and defeated Hitler in 1945, Putin implied that his war was just as existential — never mind that it was Moscow now doing the invading. He also sought to project an image of being in control of the war effort and attentive to the needs of the common soldier, at one point urging the gathered military brass to take “criticism into account.”

Just as important to the Kremlin, Putin sought to project an air of determination to the West: the notion that no matter how much arms support Ukraine gets, and despite the Russian military’s problems, the Kremlin remained determined to triumph in the end.

At the same time, Russian officials are reminding the West they are prepared to make a deal to end the war — on their terms.

“Russia is always open to holding constructive peace talks,” Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defense minister, said after Putin spoke.

Shoigu promised to carry out changes in the military’s structure, set up new units and increase its target size by more than 300,000 service members. State television also showed Shoigu giving Putin a tour of modern Russian military equipment, including surveillance drones, night vision equipment and a medical tent.

It was not known whether Wednesday’s event was purposely scheduled as counterprogramming to Zelenskyy’s high-profile visit to Washington, but it played that role for a Kremlin fiercely attentive to creating an aura of determination around Putin. Earlier in the day, the Kremlin stuck to its line that any further Western deliveries of weapons to Ukraine would only prolong the war.

“All this, of course, leads to an aggravation of the conflict,” the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said, referring to new American arms deliveries, “and, in fact, does not bode well for Ukraine.”

In another bit of countermessaging, Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and the head of the governing United Russia party, met Wednesday in Beijing with Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, as Chinese and Russian naval ships began week-long joint exercises in the East China Sea. Xi’s rare in-person meeting with a foreign official served as a reminder that Russia retained the backing of China.