A major speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, after which he visited an armaments company. There, he told hand-picked workers at a factory owned by the Almas-Antej group that Russian rocket makers now produce almost as much as all the countries in the world put together. Therefore, Russia’s victory is “inevitable” in the end, Putin said. “I have no doubts about that.” Western military experts, of course, see things differently and attest to Russia’s biggest supply problems.
The Kremlin chief stressed the importance of missile production for Russia and promised a law that would exempt workers in the defense industry from military service. Russia’s gunsmiths and munitions factories have been working at full speed for months because of the war against Ukraine.
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Putin maintains neo-Nazi narrative
During the visit to his hometown of St. Petersburg, Putin also met with World War II veterans. He once again defended the war against Ukraine as a fight against “neo-Nazis”. The 70-year-old accused Kyiv’s leadership of worshiping Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera (1909-1959), who helped Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, as a hero. “That’s why we have every reason to describe the current Ukrainian rulers as neo-Nazis,” Putin said at the appointment to mark the 80th anniversary of the breaking of the Leningrad blockade.
The president also said that since 2014 Russia has been trying to resolve the war in eastern Ukraine peacefully. That was not possible. “Ultimately, we were being deceived, deceived.” In fact, the opponent wanted to take the conflict to a heated stage. Russia’s aim now is to end the war in Ukraine through the “special military operation”. Moscow had no choice, Putin said.