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Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Western countries on Tuesday of stoking and fueling the war in Ukraine, denying one from Moscow nearly a year after the Kremlin’s unprovoked invasion of its neighbor that has killed tens of thousands of people.
In a long-delayed state-of-the-nation address, Putin cast Russia – and Ukraine – as victims of Western double-dealing and said Russia, not Ukraine, was fighting for its existence.
“We are not fighting the Ukrainian people,” Putin said in a speech the day before the war’s first anniversary on Friday. Ukraine “has become a hostage of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters, which has effectively controlled the country.”
Putin also said that Russia is suspending its participation in the New START Treaty, which was signed with the US in 2010 and extended at the beginning of the Biden administration in 2021. The treaty covers the number of long-range nuclear warheads that can be deployed and is limited. using missiles capable of carrying atomic weapons.
The speech repeated the grievances often offered by the Russian leader as a justification for the widely condemned war and disregard for international demands to withdraw from the occupied territories in Ukraine.
The Russian leader vowed no military let-up in the territory of Ukraine has been illegally annexed, apparently rejecting any peace overtures in the conflict that has reawakened fear of a new Cold War.
US causes global confrontation: Putin
Analysts expect Putin’s speech to be difficult after US President Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv on Monday.
Putin offers a new, personalized version of history, which undercuts the Ukrainian government’s argument that it needs Western help to prevent a Russian military takeover.
“The Western elite is not trying to hide its goal, to cause a ‘strategic defeat’ against Russia,” Putin said in a speech broadcast by all state TV channels. “They want to turn a local conflict into a global confrontation.”
He said Russia was ready to respond because “it would be a matter of our country’s existence.”
Putin accused the West of launching an “aggressive information attack” and targeting Russian culture, religion and values because it knows it is “impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield.”
He also accused Western countries of hitting Russia’s economy with sanctions – but said the actions “have not achieved anything and will not achieve anything.”
While the constitution mandates that the president deliver a speech every year, Putin has yet to deliver a speech in 2022. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the postponement of the speech was related to Putin’s “work schedule,” but Russian media reports linked it to various setbacks. Russia. troops have suffered in the war in Ukraine.
Biden to give an address in Poland
Biden plans to give a speech of his own on Tuesday in Warsaw, where he will address the commitment of Poland and other allies to Ukraine over the past year. More than 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees have lived in Poland since the start of the war, and Poland has also provided $3.8 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, according to the White House.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden’s address would not be “some kind of head to head” with Putin.
“This is not a rhetorical contest with other people,” he said. “It is a statement of values, a vision of what we should do and defend in this world.”
The conflict – Europe’s most significant war since World War II – has left tens of thousands dead, damaged Ukraine’s infrastructure system and crippled the global economy.
While Biden sought to use his whirlwind trip to Europe as a moment of affirmation for Ukraine and its allies, the White House also emphasized that there is no clear end to the war in the near term and that the situation on the ground is becoming increasingly complex. .
The government on Sunday announced it had new intelligence suggesting that China, which remains on the sidelines of the conflict, is now considering sending help to kill Moscow. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it could be a “serious problem” if Beijing followed suit.
The US has committed about $113 billion in aid to Ukraine since last year, while European allies have committed tens of billions of dollars more and welcomed millions of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the conflict.
Some Republicans, particularly in the House of Representatives, objected to the amount of aid the U.S. provided to the country.
WATCH | Ukraine’s pollution levels have increased significantly over the past year:
Ukraine is building a dossier of environmental damage that it considers a war crime that Russia wants to pay for, but there are concerns that climate reparations will be the last issue after the war.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate, criticized the Biden administration’s “blank check policy” in an interview Monday.
“The fear of Russia going to NATO countries and all that and pushing them out, you know, that hasn’t happened,” DeSantis told Fox News. “I think they have shown themselves to be a third-rate military power.”
In the US, a poll published last week by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 48 percent of respondents said they favor the US providing weapons to Ukraine, with 29 percent opposed and 22 percent saying no. in favor or against. In May 2022, less than three months into the war, 60 percent of US adults said they were in favor of sending Ukraine weapons.
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