Russia is defending its “sovereignty” and “non secular values” by waging battle in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin mentioned in a video handle posted on the Kremlin web site.
The speech got here a yr after Putin signed paperwork to illegally annex 4 Ukrainian areas in Europe’s greatest land seize since World Battle II.
“We’re defending Russia itself, are preventing collectively for the Motherland, for our sovereignty, non secular values and unity, for victory,” he mentioned of the invasion Kremlin forces launched in February 2022.
Putin mentioned Russia has to implement a “large-scale program” to revive and develop the annexed areas, and vowed to attain its purpose. Kremlin forces management solely elements of the 4 areas, whose mixed space is roughly the dimensions of Bulgaria.
The speech sought to show that Putin has solidified his territorial claims whilst Kyiv’s four-month-old counteroffensive, backed by billions of {dollars} in weapons from the U.S. and different allies, makes halting progress within the nation’s east and south.
The Kremlin held sham referendums a yr in the past to annex the Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson areas. The votes drew condemnation from the United Nations and Ukraine’s allies, and aren’t acknowledged internationally.
Russia-appointed authorities held elections in these areas earlier this month, whilst Moscow’s forces proceed to lose elements of the territory they took at first of the February 2022 invasion.
Ukrainian items this week moved ahead close to the village of Verbove within the Zaporizhzhia area, with troops pushing towards Russian strongholds additional south. The Institute for the Examine of Battle, U.S.-based army analysts, known as it a “tactical breakthrough” however mentioned the scenario stays fluid.
Russia in 2014 annexed the Crimean peninsula, which Ukraine has been focusing on not too long ago with extra frequent assaults on weapons, bases and provide strains there.
In a speech final yr at a signing ceremony to formalize management over the 4 occupied areas in Ukraine, Putin vowed the annexation can be irreversible and that folks on these territories would grow to be Russian residents “eternally.”
In a submit on Telegram, Dmitry Medvedev, a former president and prime minister who’s now deputy chairman of the Safety Council of Russia, mentioned the battle will final “till the whole destruction” of the Kyiv authorities and “liberation of native Russian territories.” Medvedev, a frequent provocateur on social media, additionally wrote that Russian could have “extra new areas.”