MOSCOW, Russia
Russian President Vladimir
Putin accused Western countries Tuesday of igniting and sustaining the war in
Ukraine, dismissing any blame for Moscow almost a year after the
Kremlin’s unprovoked invasion of its neighbor that has killed
tens of thousands of people.Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to give his annual state of the nation address in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023
In his long-delayed
state-of-the-nation address, Putin cast Russia — and Ukraine — as victims of
Western double-dealing and said Russia, not Ukraine, was the one fighting for
its very existence.
“We aren’t fighting the
Ukrainian people,” Putin said in a speech days before the war’s
first anniversary on Friday. Ukraine “has become hostage of the Kyiv regime
and its Western masters, which have effectively occupied the country.”
The speech reiterated a litany
of grievances that the Russian leader has frequently offered as justification
for the widely condemned war and ignored international demands to pull back
from occupied areas in Ukraine.
Observers are expected to
scour it for signs of how Putin sees the conflict, which has become bogged
down, and what tone he might set for the year ahead.
The Russian leader vowed no
military let-up in Ukrainian territories he has illegally annexed, apparently
rejecting any peace overtures in a conflict that has reawakened fears of a new
Cold War.
Instead, he offered his personalized version of recent history, which discounted arguments by the Ukrainian government that it needed Western help to thwart a Russian military takeover.
“Western elites aren’t trying
to conceal their goals, to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ to Russia,” Putin said
in the speech broadcast by all state TV channels. “They intend to transform the
local conflict into a global confrontation.”
He added that Russia is
prepared to respond to that as “it will be a matter of our country’s existence.”
While the Constitution
mandates that the president deliver the speech annually, Putin never gave one
in 2022, as his troops rolled into Ukraine and suffered repeated setbacks.
Before the speech, Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian leader would focus on the
“special military operation” in Ukraine, as Moscow calls it, and Russia’s
economy and social issues. Many observers predicted it would also address
Moscow’s fallout with the West — and Putin began with strong words for those
countries.
“It’s they who have started
the war. And we are using force to end it,” Putin said before an audience of
lawmakers, state officials and soldiers who have fought in Ukraine.
Putin accused the west of the
West of launching “aggressive information attacks” and taking aim at Russian
culture, religion and values because it is aware that “it is impossible to
defeat Russia on the battlefield.”
He also accused Western nations
of waging an attack on Russia’s economy with sanctions — but declared but they
hadn’t “achieved anything and will not achieve anything.”
Putin also said that Russia
would suspend its participation in a treaty aimed at keeping a lid on nuclear
weapons expansion. The so-called
New START Treaty was signed by Russia and the U.S. in 2010. It caps
the number of long-range nuclear warheads they can deploy and limits the use of
missiles that can carry atomic weapons.
Putin said Tuesday in a major
address that Russia was not fully withdrawing from the treaty yet. He said
Russia must stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the US does so.
Underscoring the anticipation
ahead of time, some state TV channels put out a countdown for the event
starting Monday, and Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday morning
said the address may be “historic.”
The Kremlin this year has
barred media from “unfriendly” countries, the list of which includes the U.S.,
the U.K. and those in the EU. Peskov said journalists from those nations will
be able to cover the speech by watching the broadcast.
Peskov told reporters that the
speech’s delay had to do with Putin’s “work schedule,” but Russian media
reports linked it to the multiple setbacks Russian forces have suffered on the
battlefield in Ukraine.
The Russian president had
postponed the state-of-the-nation address before: In 2017, the speech was
rescheduled for early 2018.
Last year the Kremlin has also
canceled two other big annual events — Putin’s press conference and a highly
scripted phone-in marathon where people ask the president questions.
Analysts expected Putin’s
speech would be tough in the wake of U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit
to Kyiv on Monday. Biden plans to give
his own speech later Tuesday in Poland, where he’s expected to
highlight the commitment of the central European country and other allies to
Ukraine over the past year.
White House national security
adviser Jake Sullivan said that Biden’s address would not be “some kind of head-to-head”
with Putin’s.
“This is not a rhetorical
contest with anyone else,” said. - AP
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