What: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be killed by his close confidants amid the ongoing tussle with Russia. According to a Newsweek report, the Ukrainian leader made this claim in a documentary titled ‘Ear’. In the documentary, the Ukrainian leader can be seen claiming that there will be a period of “fragility” under the Russian president’s leadership, prompting his “closest ally” to act against him. Newsweek reported that the documentary was released on Friday to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Washington Post previously reported that Putin’s close aides were growing increasingly frustrated with him after battlefield videos showed his soldiers complaining and crying.
In a related development, Zelensky on Sunday sacked Major General Eduard Mikhailovich Moskalov, commander of Joint Forces Operations, CNN reported. Moskalov was appointed to the post last March when Lieutenant General Oleksandr Pavlyuk was appointed head of the Kiev Regional Military Administration. Zelensky gave no explanation for Moskalov’s dismissal, but it is the latest in a long line of recent leadership changes made by his administration, CNN reported.
Ukrainian authorities have conducted a series of anti-corruption searches and crackdowns across the country, and several high-profile dismissals have followed. As CNN reports, it is not yet clear whether Moskalov’s firing was linked to the recent corruption purge.
As the war in Ukraine enters its second year, CIA Director William Burns said on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “very confident” in his military’s ability to bring Ukraine under subjugation.
Burns said in a televised interview that the head of Russia’s intelligence services had displayed ‘arrogance and hubris’ at their November meeting that reflected Putin’s own belief that he could make time work for himself, he believed. that the Ukrainians, that he could undermine our European allies, political fatigue would eventually set in.
Meanwhile, Putin said in an interview aired on Sunday that after Russia suspended its participation in the final arms control deal with Washington, it would “not only the United States but also other NATO countries such as France to increase the nuclear weapons capabilities”. Will keep in mind. and Britain.
Putin said in a speech earlier this week suspending Russia’s role in the 2010 New START treaty that France and Britain, not parties to the accord, would join the United States in targeting Russia with nuclear weapons. They went. In an interview with Russian TV recorded on Wednesday and broadcast on Sunday, he said he took the action to “preserve our country, ensure security and strategic stability”.
He said, “In today’s conditions, when all major NATO countries have declared their main goal to defeat us strategically, to make our people suffer … how can we not take into account their nuclear capabilities In addition, they supply tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine.”
Putin was repeating his general theme that the West is bent on destroying Russia and that his year-old war in Ukraine is part of Russia’s battle for survival. He argued a year earlier that his overarching goal in invading Ukraine was to reduce what he perceived as a threat to Russia’s security, and has since used that as justification for the possible use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. cited.
As Western military aid poured into the invaded country, the Russian leader and his foreign minister portrayed the war as a real fight between Russia and not only Ukraine but NATO.
Ukraine’s allies have stressed that they want to avoid becoming a direct fighting party in the war while preparing Ukraine to defend itself and regain Russian-held territory. Suspending his country’s participation, Putin said Russia cannot accept US inspections of its nuclear sites while Washington and its NATO allies seek Russia’s defeat in Ukraine.
The Russian president insisted that Moscow was not withdrawing from the treaty, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said the country would respect the treaty’s limits on nuclear weapons and would continue to inform the US about test launches of ballistic missiles.
In the interview with Russian TV, Putin did not elaborate on how he would ‘take into account’ the nuclear arsenals of NATO countries beyond the United States but indicated he would ‘discuss this topic centrally’. were open to Field.”
Putin also used the interview to allege that the West wants to break up Russia, a notion he has repeatedly used to justify Russian aggression in Ukraine. “They have one goal: to dissolve the former Soviet Union and its fundamental part, the Russian Federation,” Putin said.
Appealing to the nationalist sentiments of his citizens, Putin predicted that if the West succeeded in destroying Russia and establishing control, Russians might not survive as a distinct ethnic group. He said about the possible fragmentation of Russia into regional groups, “there will be Muscovites, some kind of people from the Urals, and so on.” He theorized that the West could only partially accept Russia into the so-called ‘family of civilized peoples’, breaking the country into separate pieces.
Claiming existential threats to Russians is a favorite Putin topic, and Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press that “for him, it’s all about security.” and they believe that the Russian world has been invaded from the West, and that Ukrainians are part of this Russian world.
Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said claiming the West and not Russia provoked the war in Ukraine is also a favorite Putin theme that many Russians buy into.
US President Joe Biden denied some of Putin’s claims in a speech in the Polish capital Warsaw on Tuesday. ”The United States and the nations of Europe do not seek to control or destroy Russia. The West was not plotting to attack Russia, as Putin said today,” Biden said. And millions of Russian citizens who only want to live in peace with their neighbors are not enemies.