Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden are set to deliver dueling speeches on Tuesday, with the Russian president expected to lay out his goals for the second year of the invasion of Ukraine – a day after his US counterpart made a surprise visit to Kiev.
Speaking in Moscow at 9am GMT, according to the Kremlin, the Russian despot will deliver a state of the nation address – a major speech that will be largely devoted to the conflict, which is set to hit the one-year mark on Friday, February 24.
In previous speeches, Putin has railed against the perceived threat to Russia from NATO, drawing on his country’s history to support his reasons for launching the invasion and his decision to go ahead with it in the face of unexpected Ukrainian resistance.
Biden will deliver a speech in Poland a few hours later that promises a completely different take on the Russian invasion. He met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday and promised new arms shipments and “unwavering” support.
While Putin and Biden have been locked in a war of words, China has sought to position itself as a peacemaker, saying it fears the invasion could “get out of control” in comments that appeared to blame the US for its military support to Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured February 15) will speak in Moscow at 9:00 GMT, according to the Kremlin, and deliver a State of the Union address – a key speech that will be largely devoted to his ongoing invasion of Ukraine
Over the weekend, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi of the consequences if his country interfered in the ongoing conflict by supplying arms to Russia. Beijing hit back and denied doing so.
In his speech, Putin will brief Russia’s political and military elite on the Ukraine conflict, the biggest confrontation with the West since the depths of the Cold War.
He will focus on what he calls a “military special operation” in Ukraine, provide his analysis of the international situation and outline his vision for Russia’s development after the West imposed the toughest sanctions in recent history.
“At such a crucial and very complicated point in our development, our life, everyone is waiting for a news, hoping to hear an assessment of what is happening, an assessment of the special military operation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television.
The speech to members of both chambers of parliament, as well as military commanders and soldiers, is scheduled to begin at 09:00 GMT in central Moscow.
The invasion is by far the biggest bet by a Kremlin boss since at least the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 — and a gamble that Western leaders like Biden say he must lose.
Russian forces have suffered three major turns on the battlefield since the start of the war, but still control about a fifth of Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of men have been killed and Putin, 70, now says Russia is locked in an existential struggle with an arrogant West that wants to dismember Russia and steal its vast natural resources.
The West and Ukraine reject this narrative, saying NATO’s eastward expansion is no justification for what they call doomed imperial-style land grabs. It has also denied all claims that it intends to enter Russian territory.
Russia is currently attempting to gain full control of two eastern provinces that make up Ukraine’s Donbass industrial region.
It has sent thousands of conscripts into Ukraine for a winter offensive, but has made little gains in attacks in frozen trenches along the Eastern Front in recent weeks.
Kyiv and the West see it as a push to bring victories to Putin a year after he instigated Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
Meanwhile, many are said to be fleeing Russia ahead of Putin’s speech.
Flights from Russia to foreign destinations skyrocketed overnight amid fears of escalating mobilization and even a full-scale declaration of war.
Pro-Kremlin hardliners like TV propagandist Margarita Simonyan, head of state broadcaster RT, spoke ominously before the speech of “expecting cheers.”
But fearful men fled the country at the last minute. There was an earlier exodus last fall when Putin announced a “partial mobilization.”
Opposition blogger Maxim Katz, 38, said: “The cheapest direct flight from Moscow to Yerevan [Armenia’s capital] is $650 [£540] – 5 times the regular price.
“Every pre-scheduled speech by Putin over the past year has been like a professional vacation for hoteliers, real estate agents, taxi drivers and airlines in the post-Soviet republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia.
“We don’t know how many people took a one-way trip. Estimates range from half a million to two million,” Katz said on his channel.
The Glasgow-educated political activist, who now lives in exile and has 1.68million YouTube subscribers, said: “We can say with certainty that there’s a million people across the country ready to go in a minute.” In total Russia “people live with one foot out front”.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Putin “is unlikely to announce any action to further escalate the war in Ukraine, major new Russian mobilization initiatives, or other significant policy measures” in his speech to lawmakers. and televised on national channels.
Putin’s speech will come a day after US President Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Kiev on Monday, during which he was walking through the city with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy
As rhetoric escalated between Ukraine’s western allies and Russia, China has been working to position itself as a potential peacekeeper in the conflict.
Beijing’s top diplomat Wang Yi called for a negotiated solution to the Ukraine war during a stopover in Hungary before a visit to Moscow on Monday.
Ukraine says any diplomatic solution will require the withdrawal of Russian forces from its territory, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
“China is deeply concerned that the Ukraine conflict will continue to escalate or even spiral out of control,” China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang said Tuesday in a speech at a foreign ministry forum.
“We are calling on certain countries to stop stoking the fire immediately,” he said in comments apparently aimed at the United States, adding that they “must stop hyping ‘today Ukraine, tomorrow Taiwan.'”
Ukraine is expecting large shipments of western weapons in the coming months, which will help it carry out a planned counter-offensive. In recent weeks, Ukrainian forces have claimed to have inflicted heavy casualties repelling attacking Russian forces.
While Biden was in Kyiv, the State Department announced an additional $460 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine, including $450 million in artillery ammunition, anti-tank systems and air defense radars, and $10 million for energy infrastructure.
Biden traveled from Poland to the Ukrainian capital by night train, arriving around 8 a.m. Monday after about 10 hours, before returning there the same way.
“A year later, Kiev is standing. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” Biden said Monday at the Mariinsky Palace, the official residence of Ukraine’s president.
And on Tuesday, from Warsaw’s historic Royal Castle, Biden will “make it clear that the United States will remain with Ukraine … for as long as it takes,” according to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
“You will hear messages in the President’s speech that will certainly resonate with the American people, will certainly resonate with our allies and partners, will undoubtedly resonate with the Polish people,” Kirby said of the Warsaw address.
“And I suspect that you will also hear him writing to Mr. Putin and the Russian people.”
The President arrived in Warsaw late Monday, where he is due to meet Poland’s President Andrzej Duda the next day along with other leaders of countries on NATO’s eastern flank.
He will also speak to leaders of Britain, France and Italy by phone, the White House said. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected in Washington on March 3rd.
Biden, in his signature aviator glasses, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a green combat fatigues, walked side by side toward a gold-domed cathedral in Kiev on a bright winter Monday morning pierced by the sound of air raid sirens.
“When Putin launched his invasion almost a year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West divided. He thought he could outlive us. But he was absolutely wrong,” Biden said.
Russia is currently attempting to gain full control of two eastern provinces that make up Ukraine’s Donbass industrial region. Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers ride a tank on the front line in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, on February 20
“The costs that Ukraine had to pay are extraordinarily high. The sacrifices were far too great. … We know that difficult days, weeks and years lie ahead.’
Burned-out Russian tanks stand in front of the cathedral, symbolizing Moscow’s failed assault on the capital at the start of its invasion, which began on February 24. His forces quickly reached the city walls of Kiev – only to be repulsed by unexpectedly fierce resistance.
Since then, Russia’s war has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers on both sides, cities have been reduced to rubble and millions of refugees have fled. Russia says it has annexed nearly a fifth of Ukraine, while the West has pledged tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Kiev.
“This visit of the US President to Ukraine, the first in 15 years, is the most important visit in the entire history of Ukraine-US relations,” Zelenskyy said.