For the second time since what he calls a “special military operation” began in Ukraine, the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, threatened to use his nuclear arsenal against anyone who tries to reverse his plans, a day after the United States summoned 40 countries to demand that they supply more weapons to kyiv.
“If someone dares to interfere in events and creates unacceptable threats to Russia of a strategic nature, he should know that our frontal counter-strike will be devastating, fast. In this sense, we have all the necessary instruments, which at this time no one else can boast of having them”.
And he added: “We do not want to show off, we are only going to use them, if necessary. I want the whole world to know, all the decisions have already been made.”
On February 27, three days after the war began, Putin issued the same warning for the first time, announcing that he had ordered Russia’s entire nuclear arsenal placed on high alert.
The Russian president reiterated the threat this Wednesday in Saint Petersburg, his hometown, when speaking before members of the Council of Legislators, a consultative body of the upper house of the Senate, on the occasion of the Day of Parliamentarism in Russia.
In his speech, broadcast live on the main Russian public television channels, Putin praised his troops, who “heroically fulfill their duty and will fulfill all the tasks set to guarantee peace and security for the inhabitants from a historical perspective.” of the people’s republics of Donietsk and Luhansk, of Russian Crimea and of our entire country.”
The head of the Kremlin justified his decision to start the war by saying that the Ukrainian government “adopted in its current doctrinal documents the military attack against Crimea and Donbas (the Donietsk and Lugansk regions) and earmarked for their people the role of cannon fodder”.
Putin is convinced that he made the right decision by ordering the invasion. “For some time now, the kyiv regime began to talk about acquiring nuclear weapons, a whole network of Western biological laboratories appeared on Ukrainian territory, the constant supply of the most modern weapons began, all this confirms that our reaction to these intentions cynical was timely and appropriate, “he said.
The Russian president accused “the enemies of our country”, referring to the United States and the other 47 hostile countries that according to his government Russia has, of creating a kind of “geopolitical weapon by betting on anti-Russian sentiments and neo-Nazism, turning – from year to year, impertinently and cynically – in an ‘anti-Russia’ to Ukraine”.
For Putin, when Ukraine became independent, Russia hoped to have a friendly country as a neighbor with which to strengthen cooperation in all areas.
“Of course, no one could have imagined that an ‘anti-Russia’ would emerge in historically Russian territories, something we cannot allow,” he lamented.
Russia is making slow progress in seizing territory in its invasion of Ukraine, and has begun to make “more prudent” military decisions, according to the latest assessment by the Institute for the Study of War research group. Via GraphicNews.
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