Even as Russia presses its punishing war on the Eastern European country of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin declared on Victory Day on Monday that Russian forces in Ukraine were protecting the homeland from an “absolutely unacceptable threat.”
President Putin inaugurates the annual parade marking the victory of Russia On Nazi Germany in World War II during the year 1945.
Putin further said that it is necessary to do everything to prevent the “horrors of global war” again. He repeated these ideas in front of thousands of Russian soldiers gathered in Moscow’s Red Square.
Putin also said that Russian troops were continuing the fight against Nazism in Ukraine.
However, the president did not make any major announcements during his speech, despite reports in the West that he may use the anniversary to announce an escalation of conflict in the country. Ukraine Or a general mobilization in Russia.
Putin vowed on Sunday that “as in 1945, victory will be ours” as he congratulated former Soviet countries on the 77th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. second World War,
Instead, Putin tried to garner public support for the campaign by linking the current conflict with the Great Patriotic War of the Russians.
Addressing the Russian army in Ukraine, he said: “You are fighting for the motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of World War II.”
Putin blamed Ukraine and the West for the conflict, saying Kyiv and its allies were preparing an “invasion of our historic land” in the Russian-speaking Donbass region and Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Putin pointed to Ukraine’s delivery of NATO weapons and the deployment of foreign advisers, saying “an absolutely unacceptable threat was being posed to us directly on our borders.”
Russia had no choice, Putin said, but to make a pre-emptive response to aggression, calling it the “only right decision” for a “sovereign, strong and independent country”.
Russia was celebrating the 77th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany with parades and marches on Monday, including the main celebration in Red Square, which included some 11,000 soldiers and more than 130 military vehicles.