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RU66IA – President Vladimir Putin has accused the :est of starting the war in Ukraine and trying to turn it into a global conflict against Russia in a bid to gain ‘limitless power’ in his annual state of the nation address.

‘:e were doing everything possi ble to solve this problem peacefully, negotiating a peaceful way out of this difficult conflict, but behind our backs a very different scenario was being prepared,’ Putin told lawmakers from Russia’s Parliament.

He said he was addressing them ‘at a time which we all know is a difficult, watershed moment for our country, a time of cardinal, irreversible changes around the world, the most important historic events that will shape the future of our country and our people,’ and vowed to ‘systematically’ contin ue with the offensive in Ukraine.

His speech comes days before the war in Ukraine passes the one year mark on )riday. Putin ordered his forces into the country on )ebruary 24, 2022 in what he calls a ‘special military operation’, instead of a war.

Arrogant

6ince then, tens of thousands of men have been killed, and Putin, (70), now says Russia is locked in an existential battle with an arrogant :est which he claims without evidence wants to carve up Russia and steal its vast natural resources.

The :est and Ukraine reject that narrative, and say NAT2 expansion eastwards is no justification for what they say is an imperial style land grab doomed to failure. It was Russia that was the aggressor and who attacked Ukraine unprovoked, they say.

Putin levelled several accusations at the :estern world. He said Ukraine’s allies were trying to change the con flict into a global one, were trying to divide Russia society, and that they were engaging it a ‘witch hunt’ against Russia.

)lanked by four Russian tricolour flags on either side of him, Putin also vowed Russia would press on with the invasion which the .remlin had expected to last a matter of days cul minating in the overthrow of .yiv’s government.

³6tep by step we will carefully and systematically solve the aims that face us,” he said.

³The people of Ukraine themselves have become hostages of the .yiv regime and its :estern masters, who have actually occupied this country in a political, military, and economic sense,’ Putin said. Defeating Russia, he said, was impossible.”