Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned on Saturday his nation would by no means give in to the West‘s makes an attempt to make use of Ukraine as a device to destroy Russia.
In a New Year’s video message broadcast on Russian state TV, Putin mentioned Russia was preventing in Ukraine to guard its “motherland” and to safe “true independence” for its folks.
In a nine-minute message – the longest New Year’s deal with of his two-decade rule – Putin accused the West of mendacity to Russia and of frightening Moscow to launch what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“For years, Western elites hypocritically assured us of their peaceful intentions,” he mentioned in a speech filmed in entrance of Russian service personnel on the headquarters of Russia’s southern navy district.
“In fact, in every possible way they were encouraging neo-Nazis who conducted open terrorism against civilians in the Donbas,” Putin mentioned in an uncharacteristically combative New Year’s speech, normally devoted to properly needs for the 12 months forward.
Earlier on Saturday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had vowed victory in Ukraine was “inevitable” as he praised the heroism of Russian troopers preventing on the frontlines and people who had died throughout the 10-month warfare.
“The West lied about peace,” Putin mentioned. “It was preparing for aggression … and now they are cynically using Ukraine and its people to weaken and split Russia.
“We have by no means allowed this, and can by no means enable anyone to do that to us,” Russian state-run news businesses quoted Putin as saying within the clip, which was broadcast at midnight in Russia’s far east.
Kyiv and the West reject Moscow’s claims over the beginning of the battle and say Putin launched a baseless warfare of aggression in a bid to grab territory and topple Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
