Putin accuses the West of wanting to destroy Russia, “which is invincible”

Russian President Vladimir Putin will bring the war in Ukraine to an end. In his first speech to Russian lawmakers since 2021, he said the country would overcome “the challenges it faces. We will achieve our goals step by step,” he said. He also accused the West of seeking to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia in Ukraine. “What does it mean? What is it to us? It means they want to finish us off once and for all.”He said.

Putin, who has not addressed parliament since April 2021, warned that in that case “the very existence” of the Russian Federation would be in danger. He also lashed out at the Western powers for wanting to convert local conflict in “global conflict” and warned that the defeat of Russia on the battlefield is “impossible”. “One thing should be clear to everyone: the greater the range of weapons delivered to Ukraine, the more we will be forced to move the threat away from our borders,” he said. “Russia is invincible”– assured Putin.

nuclear escalation

The Russian president also announced the suspension of Russia’s participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), the latest pact signed with the United States to reduce and control nuclear weapons.

Putin, who indicated that Russia “must be ready to carry out nuclear tests if the United States conducts them first”, emphasized that it is not a matter of completely “abandoning” the treaty, but of “suspend participation”as he explained during a speech before the Russian Federal Assembly almost a year after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Therefore, he described NATO’s calls for Russia to adhere to the mentioned agreement as “absurd”, especially after the allies condemned Russia’s non-compliance with the agreement in early February and asked Moscow to respect its obligations.

Ukrainian “polygon”

In addition, the Russian leader condemned that “the West uses Ukraine as a training ground, as a battering ram against Russia” and recalled that even before the start of the Russian military campaign almost a year ago, Kiev had already negotiated with its sponsors for the supply of weapons. “The responsibility for the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict, for the escalation, for the increase in the number of victims falls entirely on western elites and, of course, in electricity the Kiev regime“, he emphasized.

“In order to ensure the security of our country, to remove the threat posed by the neo-Nazi regime that emerged in Ukraine after the coup d’état in 2014, it was decided to conduct a special military operation. Step by step, carefully and consistently, we will achieve the tasks we face,” Putin claimed, justifying the invasion.

more modern weapons

Putin also announced the introduction of more modern technologies in the production of weapons and relying on the experience of the military campaign in Ukraine. “We will actively introduce the most advanced technologies that will ensure an increase in the qualitative potential of the Army and Navy. We have samples of weapons and equipment in each of the areas,” the Kremlin chief said during a state of the nation address to both houses of parliament. The challenge now facing Russian arms manufacturers is to ensure their “mass production.”

The number of civilians killed in Ukraine has exceeded 8,000 after a year of war

Number civilians killed by the Russian invasion Ukraine confirmed the United Nations today exceeded the barrier of 8,000, indicated the UN Office for Human Rights, which pointed out that the year of conflict also caused 13,287 injuries among the non-military population. “Our data is only the tip of the iceberg in a war whose cost to civilians is unbearable,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement.

His office, which has been tracking civilian casualties since the beginning of the Russian invasion, today published an annual report in which it emphasized that at least 487 civilians had been killed in the year of the war and Of the injured, 954 were boys and girls.

40% of the victims (dead and wounded) whose gender was known were women, the report said, which acknowledged that the actual number could be much higher because there is no complete data on the effects of the war in the cities hit hard by the war. conflicts such as Mariúpol, Lisichansk, Popasna or Severodonetsk, among others.