Putin chides West, defends Ukraine invasion in major speech

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the West of trying to turn a “local conflict” in Ukraine into a “global confrontation” — as he issued a nuclear warning to Kyiv’s allies in an unhinged speech to his country’s parliament and elites, which signaled no end in sight for the bloody war.

Russia’s defiant 70-year-old leader delivered his rambling address railing against the West just days before the one-year anniversary of Ukraine’s invasion – and a mere 24 hours after President Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv in a show of support for the embattled country.

Speaking for one hour and 45 minutes below an oversized emblem bearing the two-headed eagle of Russia, Putin vowed to carry on with Russia’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine during what he termed a “watershed moment.”

He also sought to justify the war, saying it had been forced on Russia and that he understood the pain of the families of those who had been killed in battle.

“The people of Ukraine have become the hostage of the Kyiv regime and its Western overlords, who have effectively occupied this country in the political, military and economic sense,” Putin said.

“They intend to transform a local conflict into a phase of global confrontation. This is exactly how we understand it all and we will react accordingly, because in this case we are talking about the existence of our country.”

Despite a series of embarrassing military setbacks and losses in Ukraine last year, Putin argued that defeating Russia was impossible.

“The elites of the West do not hide their purpose. But they also cannot fail to realize that it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield,” Putin said.

In the only major announcement to emerge from his long-winded, familiar-sounding diatribe against the West, Putin said that Russia was suspending its participation in the New START treaty with the US that limits the two sides’ strategic nuclear arsenals.

The Kremlin strongman noted that Russia was not withdrawing from the treaty but the suspension further imperils the last remaining pillar of arms control between the US and Russia, which between them hold nearly 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads – enough to destroy the planet many times over.

“In this regard, I am forced to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the strategic offensive arms treaty,” Putin said.

Putin said Russia’s nuclear energy company Rosatom must also ensure the country’s readiness to test a nuclear weapon, if needed.

“Of course, we will not be the first to do this. But if the United States tests, then we will,” he said. “No one must be under any dangerous illusions that global strategic parity can be destroyed.”

The New START treaty was signed in Prague in 2010 and extended in 2021 for five more years, limiting both sides to 1,550 warheads on deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine ballistic missiles and heavy bombers.

Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, with close to 6,000 warheads, experts say.

In his address to Russian lawmakers and military leaders, Putin said, without providing evidence, that the West was directly involved in Ukrainian attacks on bases for Russian strategic bomber planes deep inside Russian territory.

He said NATO demands that Russia should allow inspections of its nuclear bases under the New START treaty were therefore absurd.

“The US and NATO openly say that their goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. And what – after that, they are going to drive around our defense facilities, including the newest ones, as if nothing had happened?” Putin said.

“A week ago, I signed a decree on putting new ground-based strategic systems on combat duty. Are they going to stick their nose in there too, or what? And they think that everything is so simple? What are we going to let them in there just like that?”

Putin said NATO members France and Britain also had nuclear weapons aimed at Russia that should be taken into account.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg responded to Putin’s comments by warning that his decision to suspend participation in the New START treaty made the world a more dangerous place, and he urged Moscow to reconsider.

“More nuclear weapons and less arms control makes the world more dangerous,” Stoltenberg, standing alongside Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, told reporters in Brussels.

Replying to Putin’s accusations that the West was trying to destroy Russia, Stoltenberg said Moscow was the aggressor in Ukraine.

“It is President Putin who started this imperial war of conquest … As Putin made clear today, he’s preparing for more war … Putin must not win … It would be dangerous for our own security and the whole world,” Stoltenberg added.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken slammed Russia’s decision as irresponsible and said that the US would watch carefully to see what Moscow actually does.
In his long-delayed speech, which originally was supposed to be delivered last year, Putin cast his country — and Ukraine — as victims of Western double-dealing and said it was Russia, not Ukraine, fighting for its very existence .

“We aren’t fighting the Ukrainian people,” Putin said. “The Ukrainian people have become hostages of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters, which have effectively occupied the country.”

“It’s they who have started the war. And we are using force to end it,” he added.

Putin denied any wrongdoing, even as the Kremlin’s forces in Ukraine strike civilian targets, including hospitals, and are widely accused of war crimes.

On the ground in Ukraine on Tuesday, grinding battles and shelling attacks continued in the east and the south of the country. At least six people were killed over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s presidential office reported in the morning.

“The life of civilians in the region has been turned into hell — they’re surviving under constant Russian fire without water and electricity,” Ukrainian governor of the partially occupied Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said

As he has done many times before, Putin accused the West of taking aim at Russian culture, religion and traditional values to undermine the fabric of its society.

“Look at what they do with their own peoples: the destruction of the family, cultural and national identity, perversion, and the abuse of children are declared the norm,” he sniffed. “And priests are forced to bless same-sex marriages… Millions of people in the West understand they are being led to a real spiritual catastrophe.”

Putin boasted that just as Western weapons have failed to defeat Russia’s forces, Western sanctions would have no effect, saying they hadn’t “achieved anything and will not achieve anything.”

“Those imposing sanctions are punishing themselves,” he said. “They have caused price hikes, job losses, an energy crisis. And we hear them telling their own people that the Russians are to blame…”

Biden is expected to deliver his own speech later Tuesday during his visit to Poland, which will 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,” he said.

With Post wires