Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he will not give up the so-called goals of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Source: Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a speech at the board of the Russian Ministry of Defense
Putin’s direct speech: “The West is not giving up its strategy of containing Russia and is not giving up its aggressive goals in Ukraine. Well, we are not going to give up our goals of SVO (war – ed.).”
Details: Putin complained that the West is “transferring to the enemy weapons that have been scouted in real time” and is waging a hybrid war against Russia.
Added: Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claims that “in general, all the tasks defined for 2023 have been completed by the Armed Forces (of Russia – ed.), and the specified level of maintaining defense capability has been ensured.” Shoigu also noted that Russia will continue its offensive against Ukraine, in particular in 2024.
Background:
- To justify a full-scale invasion of Ukrainian territory in February 2022, the Kremlin stated the goal of “denazification and demilitarization” of Ukraine.
- In particular, on February 24, 2022, Putin said: “I have decided to conduct a special military operation. Its goal is to protect people who have been subjected to genocide by the Kiev regime for 8 years. And for this we will strive to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine.”
- Putin’s press secretary stated in February 2022 that “ideally, Ukraine needs to be liberated, cleared of the Nazis,” and Lavrov stated in March 2022 that “the special operation is designed to put an end to any war that could occur on Ukrainian territory.”
- After this, the conditional “goals of the Northern Military District” changed even more in the rhetoric of the occupiers.
- In particular, in June 2023, Putin made a contradictory statement about the goals of Russia’s attack on Ukraine: they both change and do not change at the same time. In August of this year, the self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko generally stated that the goals of the war against Ukraine had already been achieved.
Read also: How the goals of Putin’s “special operation” changed in 150 days
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2023-12-19 10:52:52