Putin assured that he will maintain the invasion of Russia in Ukraine

Putin assured that he will maintain the offensive in Ukraine. (REUTERS/Turar Kazangapov)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has assured that he will “systematically” continue Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

Putin delivers his first speech before Parliament since April last year. A presentation scheduled for the end of 2022 that was canceled with the excuse of “scheduling problems”, according to the official version, when only bad news came from the battlefront for the Russian hierarch.

“To ensure the security of our country, to eliminate the threat posed by the neo-Nazi regime that emerged in Ukraine after the 2014 coup, it was decided to carry out a special military operation. Step by step, carefully and consistently, we will achieve the tasks we face,” Putin said in his state of the nation address to both houses of Parliament.

Among the special guests at the Duma are a significant number of soldiers in the audience.

“I am addressing you at a difficult and key moment for our country, at a time of profound change throughout the world,” Putin told senior Russian officials and political elites.

Attendees at Putin’s speech (Sputnik/Reuters)

The Russian president again lashed out at the West, justifying the invasion by accusing his rivals of threatening Russia. “It is they who have started the war. And we are using force to put an end to it,” Putin said. “The responsibility for fueling the Ukrainian conflict, for its escalation, for the number of casualties… lies entirely with Western elites,” he noted.

According to him, the West wants to deal Russia a “strategic defeat” in Ukraine. “They want to end it (Russia) once and for all,” the Kremlin chief said.

In addition, he said that the bloc knows that “it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield”, so it launches “aggressive information attacks” against Russia by “misrepresenting historical facts”, attacking Russian culture, religion and values.

The president assured that he did “everything possible, really everything possible, to solve this problem by peaceful means”, but blamed Ukraine for not resolving the situation in the Donbas. “We have been patiently negotiating a peaceful solution to this very difficult conflict. But behind our backs a completely different scenario was being prepared,” he expressed.

He argued that the Kiev regime did not address the region’s problems, but rather aggravated them: “They were only buying time, turning a blind eye to political assassinations, to the Kiev regime’s repression of the unwanted, to the harassment of believers”.

Government spokesman Dmitry Peskov had anticipated that the Russian leader would focus on the “special military operation” in Ukraine, as Moscow calls it, and on Russia’s economy and social affairs. Many observers also expect the speech to address Moscow’s disagreements with the West.

Underscoring the expectation, some state television channels put a countdown to the event from Monday, and Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti said Tuesday morning that the speech could be “historic.”

Peskov told reporters the delay in the speech had to do with Putin’s “work schedule”, but Russian media linked it to the multiple setbacks Russian forces have suffered on the Ukrainian battlefield.

Last year, the Kremlin also canceled two other big annual events: Putin’s press conference and a heavily scripted phone marathon in which people ask the president questions.

News in development…

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