Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the West of wanting to “finish off” Russia in Ukraine, where he vowed to continue his military offensive in a “methodical” way, almost a year after the start of a conflict which escalated. stuck.
The martial-toned state of the nation address comes hours before another much-awaited address by US President Joe Biden, who is in Poland after a surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday where he promised more weapons to Ukrainians.
This unprecedented remote duel, which recalls the tensest hours of the Cold War, comes three days before the anniversary of the launch of the offensive against Ukraine which caused a global economic crisis and led Western countries to bring a powerful military support in Kiev.
Saying his aim was to ensure Russia’s ‘security’, Mr Putin vowed to fulfill ‘step by step, carefully and methodically’ the objectives of this offensive which has been marked in recent months by a series of military setbacks humiliating for Moscow.
The West wants “to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, that is to say, to finish us off once and for all”, thundered Mr. Putin, accusing Washington and its European allies of bearing “responsibility for the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict and its victims”.
“But they are not unaware that it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield,” added the master of the Kremlin, before thanking “all the Russian people for their courage and determination” and calling for a minute of silence for the many Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine.
Referring to the international sanctions that are hitting Russia, Mr. Putin considered that the West “has not achieved anything and will not achieve anything”, while the Russian economy has resisted better than anticipated by the experts.
“We have ensured the stability of the economic situation, protected the citizens”, he noted, believing that the West had failed to “destabilize our society”.
“Absurdity”
Mr. Putin’s speech, anxiously awaited by many Russians fearing a new wave of massive mobilization to fight in Ukraine, contained no significant announcement.
However, in a sign that the internal repression accompanying the military offensive is likely to worsen, Mr Putin said that “those who have chosen to betray Russia must be held accountable before the law”.
The statements by the Russian head of state present a radically different view of the conflict from that set out the day before in Kiev by Mr. Biden, who is expected to respond to Mr. Putin in his speech Tuesday expected around 10:30 a.m. EST since the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
“kyiv is standing tall. Democracy is standing, ”launched the American president during his visit to Ukraine.
But beyond a simple military conflict, Mr. Putin, who has never stopped getting closer to the Orthodox Church, of which he presents himself as the defender, presents this confrontation as a clash of civilizations between a Russia attached to the values ” traditions” and a “decadent” West.
On Tuesday, he thus accused Westerners of having erected “the perversion and abuse of children, up to pedophilia, […] as the norm. Even “priests are obliged to bless marriages between homosexuals! “, he was indignant.
Without even waiting for the end of Mr. Putin’s speech, the White House denounced the “absurdity” of the Russian president’s anti-Western rhetoric.
China “very worried”
As the anniversary of the conflict approaches, Moscow is far from having achieved its objectives, even if its forces have redoubled their efforts in recent weeks to advance in the east, in particular around the city of Bakhmout.
Faced with waves of assaults and systematic strikes against its energy infrastructure, Ukraine is demanding increasingly sophisticated arms deliveries from its allies. The Westerners have agreed to supply it with heavy tanks, but not fighter planes, so far.
On Monday, Mr. Biden announced that his country would once again increase this aid by $500 million.
The American leader is due to meet President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw, then on Wednesday the leaders of nine European countries from the former communist bloc that have joined NATO.
He must also speak by telephone with the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Italy.
For its part, Moscow can count on the support of China, whose head of diplomacy is expected in Russia on Tuesday and Wednesday.
A sign, however, that its patience is running out, China called on Tuesday to “promote dialogue” in Ukraine, saying it was “very worried” about the conflict which “is intensifying and even getting out of control”.