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 neighbour that has killed tens of thousands of people.
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.”
Putin also said that Russia is suspending its participation in the New START Treaty, signed with the U.S. in 2010 and extended in the early days of the Biden administration in 2021. The treaty caps the number of long-range nuclear warheads they can deploy and limits the use of missiles that can carry atomic weapons.
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.
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.
U.S. sparking a global confrontation: Putin
Analysts expected Putin’s speech would be tough in the wake of U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv on Monday.
Putin 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 said that Russia is prepared to respond to that as “it will be a matter of our country’s existence.”
Putin accused 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 those actions hadn’t “achieved anything and will not achieve anything.”
While the constitution mandates that the president deliver the speech annually, Putin never gave one in 2022. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry 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.
Biden to give address in Poland
Biden plans to give his own speech later Tuesday in Warsaw, where he’s expected to highlight the commitment of Poland and other allies to Ukraine over the past year. More than 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees have settled in Poland since the start of the war, and Poland has also provided Ukraine with $3.8 billion in military and humanitarian aid, according to the White House.
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. “This is an affirmative statement of values, a vision for what the world we’re both trying to build and defend should look like.”
The conflict — the most significant war in Europe since the Second World War — has already left tens of thousands of people dead, devastated Ukraine’s infrastructure system and damaged the global economy.
While Biden is looking to use his whirlwind trip to Europe as a moment of affirmation for Ukraine and allies, the White House has also emphasized that there is no clear endgame to the war in the near term and the situation on the ground has become increasingly complex.
The administration on Sunday revealed it has new intelligence suggesting that China, which has remained on the sidelines of the conflict, is now considering sending Moscow lethal aid. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it could become a “serious problem” if Beijing follows through.
The U.S. has committed about $113 billion US in aid to Ukraine since last year, while European allies have committed tens of billions of dollars more and welcomed millions of Ukrainian refugees who have fled the conflict.
Some Republicans, particularly in the House of Representatives, have balked at the amount of aid the U.S. has given the country.
WATCH | Ukraine’s pollution levels have multiplied in past year:
Ukraine is building a damning dossier of environmental damage it considers war crimes that it wants Russia to pay for, but there’s concern climate reparations will be the last thing addressed after the war.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate, criticized the Biden administration’s “blank-cheque policy” in an interview on Monday.
“The fear of Russia going into NATO countries and all that and steamrolling, you know, that has not even come close to happening,” DeSantis told Fox News. “I think they’ve shown themselves to be a third-rate military power.”
In the U.S., a poll published last week by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 48 per cent of respondents said they favoured the U.S. providing weapons to Ukraine, with 29 per cent opposed and 22 per cent saying they’re neither in favour nor opposed. In May 2022, less than three months into the war, 60 per cent of U.S. adults said they were in favour of sending Ukraine weapons.
