- Western nations and Ukraine have repeatedly dismissed Putin’s narrative.
- The US government officially concluded on Saturday that Moscow had committed “crimes against humanity” during its year-long invasion of its neighbor.
- February 24 marks a year since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting a ground war in Europe that Putin still calls a “special military operation.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his annual state of the nation address at the Gostiny Dvor conference center in central Moscow February 21, 2023.
Mikhail Metzel | AFP | Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin used a much-anticipated speech on Tuesday to deny responsibility for the war in Ukraine and to address his opponents.
His comments come despite repeated denials by Western nations and Ukraine of Putin’s narrative of the war.
February 24 marks a year since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting a ground war in Europe that Putin still calls a “special military operation.” Intense fighting continues in the war-torn nation, with the death toll reportedly in the tens of thousands.
In a speech lasting more than an hour, Putin tried to justify the invasion of Russia, claiming that it was trying to allow citizens in the contested Donbass region to speak their “own language” and was seeking a peaceful solution.
He also cited NATO expansion and new European anti-missile defense systems as Russia’s provocation, saying the West’s goal is “infinite power.”
The US government officially concluded on Saturday that Moscow had committed “crimes against humanity” during its year-long invasion of its neighbor. Political scientists say that Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine was the biggest mistake of his political career and weakened Russia for years to come.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 after a rigged referendum. The invasion was widely condemned by the international community and led to a series of Western sanctions against Russian officials. Last year it also annexed four Ukrainian regions (Donetsk and Luhansk, which comprise the Donbass region, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhia), which Ukraine and its allies also condemned as illegal and illegitimate.
Speaking on Donbass on Tuesday, Putin claimed the Kremlin saw an increase in threats in the contested region ahead of the Feb. 24 invasion.
“We had no doubt that by February 2022 everything was ready for a punitive action in Donbass, where [the] The Kiev regime provided artillery, aviation and other weapons to attack Donbass in 2014. In 2015, they again tried to attack Donbass directly, they continued shelling, terror,” he said, according to a translation of Sky News.
“All of this was totally against the documents accepted by the United Nations Security Council. I want to repeat it: you started the war. And we used violence to stop him.”
Putin’s “state of the nation” address was delivered to lawmakers and military officials in Moscow on Tuesday and was also broadcast on state television.
Russia wanted to build a highway to Crimea, Putin said, and enact a “social restoration” program for the areas it claims control of.
Ukrainian officials are defiant, however, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has repeatedly insisted the country will surrender to nothing more than restoring the country’s pre-invasion borders.
“Putin is back to his usual grievances,” said former Ukrainian ambassador to Austria Olexander Scherba. called on twitter. “The biggest: The West and Ukraine were ready for a war with [Russia]. As if there weren’t any [Russia] Ultimatum. As if [French President Emmanuel] macron, [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz & Co did not travel to Moscow begging in 2021 [Russia] not to do it.”
US President Joe Biden paid a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Monday, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Biden said the trip was intended to “reaffirm our unwavering and unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty and territorial integrity.” He also promised to supply more artillery ammunition and anti-tank systems, and to announce new sanctions against Russian companies and their elites.
Biden is also scheduled to deliver a speech in Poland on Tuesday, where he is meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda.