“The responsibility for fueling the Ukrainian conflict, its escalation, the number of victims (…) falls entirely on the Western elites,” Putin said, reiterating that the West supports “neo-Nazi” forces in Ukraine to consolidate a “Anti-Russian state”.
In this context, the Kremlin leader stated that his country did everything possible to resolve the conflict “by peaceful means” before launching the offensive on February 24 of last year.
“We did everything possible to resolve this problem peacefully. We patiently held negotiations for a peaceful solution to this serious conflict. But behind our backs they were preparing another scenario,” he said in his message at the Gostini Dvor convention center in Moscow.
“We are not in conflict with the people of Ukraine. I reiterate. The Ukrainian people themselves became a hostage to the Kiev regime and its Western masters, who actually occupied this country in a political, military and economic sense,” the president said.
The Russian president pointed out that the United States and NATO “prepared the Kiev regime under their rule, a Ukraine enslaved by them for a great war, and today they admit it. They admit it publicly, openly, without shame,” he said.
Likewise, he assured, “the US and NATO rapidly deployed their military bases, secret biological laboratories near the borders” of Russia, and during the maneuvers they studied the future theater of military operations.
A senior US official today called all of Putin’s accusations “absurd”.
“No one is attacking Russia. It is absurd to think that Russia is under any kind of military threat from Ukraine or any other country,” said the White House National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivanquoted by the AFP news agency.
In his speech, the Russian president also stated that he remained determined, a year after the start of the offensive in Ukraine, to continue it.
“We are going to solve step by step, carefully and systematically, the objectives that we have before us,” he said.
Before the country’s political elite and the military who fought in Ukraine, he also thanked “all the Russian people for their courage and determination.”
Referring to the international sanctions that affect Russia, Putin estimated that the Westerners “have not reached anything and will not reach anything”, since the Russian economy resisted better than what experts had anticipated.
“We have guaranteed the stability of the economic situation, protected the citizens,” Putin said, estimating that the West had not managed to “destabilize” Russian society.
Moscow suspends its participation in a nuclear disarmament agreement signed with the United States
On the other hand, Putin announced that Russia is suspending its participation in the New Start nuclear disarmament treaty and threatened to carry out new nuclear tests if the United States did them first.
“I have to say today that Russia is suspending its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty,” he said.
The Russian leader called NATO’s calls for Russia to “comply with the treaty again” and allow Western experts to inspect Russian military and nuclear facilities in the current confrontational situation as “theatre of the absurd.”
Russia demands US withdraw NATO “soldiers and equipment” from Ukraine
Russian diplomacy summoned the US ambassador to Moscow on Tuesday to deliver a note demanding the US withdraw NATO “soldiers and equipment” from Ukraine.
“It has been noted in particular that, in order to de-escalate the situation, Washington must take steps towards the withdrawal of US and NATO soldiers and equipment, and cease its anti-Russian activities,” the Foreign Ministry stressed. Russia in a statement.
Source: Ambito
