Putin defends military ops in Ukraine
Putin says Russian troops in Ukraine are defending their homeland and portrayed it as a continuation of WWII
MOSCOW/KYIV: President Vladimir Putin on Monday defended Russia’s offensive in Ukraine and blamed Kyiv and the West, as he looked to use grand Victory Day celebrations to mobilise patriotic support for the campaign.
Speaking at the start of the annual military parade in Red Square marking the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany, Putin said Russian troops in Ukraine were defending their homeland and portrayed the conflict as a continuation of World War II.
Addressing Russian forces on the front in Ukraine, he said: “You are fighting for the Motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of the Second World War.”
Putin has repeatedly tried to connect the fighting in Ukraine to what Russians call the Great Patriotic War by describing authorities in Kyiv as neo-Nazis.
‘Absolutely unacceptable threat’, says Putin
“An absolutely unacceptable threat to us was being created, directly on our borders,” Putin said, pointing to Nato weapons deliveries to Ukraine and the deployment of foreign advisors.
Russia had no choice, Putin said, but to undertake a preemptive response, calling it “the only right decision” for a “sovereign,
Russian servicemen (above) march on; S-400 missile defence systems (top right) drive in and Russian President Vladimir Putin (rightcentre) watches the Victory Day military parade at Red Square in Moscow, on Monday.
strong and independent country”.
He insisted that Russia was not looking to expand the conflict, saying it was important “to do everything so that the horror of a global war does not happen again.”
Putin said some of the troops taking part in Monday’s parade had come directly from the front in Ukraine. He made no mention of how the conflict is dragging on after more than two months, but acknowledged the “irreparable loss” for the families of dead soldiers and promised state support.
Russia trying to storm Mariupol plant: Ukraine
Ukraine’s defence ministry said on Monday says Russian forces backed by tanks and artillery were conducting “storming operations” on the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where the city’s last defenders are holed up.
Defence ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk gave no further details but said, without providing evidence, that there could be future attacks by Russian bombers.
Ukraine’s military said on Monday that four high-precision Onyx missiles fired from the Russian-controlled Crimea peninsula had struck the Odesa area in southern Ukraine, but gave no other details.
Use Russian reserves to rebuild Ukraine: Borrell
The European Union should consider seizing frozen Russian foreign exchange reserves to help pay for the cost of rebuilding Ukraine after the war, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in an interview with the Financial Times.
The EU and its western allies have put curbs on the Russian central bank’s international reserves since the country began its invasion of Ukraine, actions Moscow describes as a “special military operation”.
Borrell told the newspaper it would be logical for the European Union to do what the United States did with Afghanistan’s central bank assets after the Taliban took that country over.
“We have the money in our pockets, and someone has to explain to me why it is good for the Afghan money and not good for the Russian money,” Borrell said.