West wants 'to be done' with Russia: Putin stresses on inevitability of war at major speech
2 min read 21 Feb 2023, 03:18 PM ISTHis address comes after several high-stakes diplomatic moves, including US President Joe Biden’s unannounced visit to Kyiv.
PremiumRussian President Vladimir Putin delivered the much awaited and much delayed state-of-the-nation address in the parliament in what is being considered a major move as the Russian elites are assessing the invasion that Putin ordered a year ago.
"I am making this address at a time which we all know is a difficult, watershed moment for our country, a time of cardinal, irreversible changes around the world, the most important historic events that shape the future of our country and our people, when each of us bears a colossal responsibility." Putin said at the parliament.
His address comes after several high-stakes diplomatic moves, including US President Joe Biden’s unannounced visit to Kyiv.
During his speech, Putin said, “The West is trying to turn a local conflict into a global conflict and we will react in an appropriate way. We are talking about the existence of our country".
"Western elites are not hiding their goal - to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. It means to be done with us once and for all" Putin added.
Inevitability of war
According to Al Jazeerah, Putin emphasised on stating the ‘inevitability’ of the war. “Putin’s combative speech was aimed at detailing the inevitability of the war in Ukraine from the Kremlin’s perspective. Putin also accused the West of being behind the ‘Nazis’ [in Ukraine], and that it was important for Russia to ‘denazify’ its border" the news agency reported.
West criticised
"I want to emphasise that... no country in the world has as many military bases abroad as the United States. There are hundreds of them... around the world.
"The whole world has seen them withdraw from fundamental armaments agreements, including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. They unilaterally tore apart the fundamental agreements that maintain world peace. Why did they do this? Just because they could."
West taking Ukraine's population ‘hostage’
"I have already said many times that 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... Today's Ukrainian regime essentially serves not the national interests but those of third countries."
Putin accused Ukraine’s leaders of taking the country’s population “hostage", adding Kyiv is “serving the interests of foreign powers".
“The people of Ukraine themselves have become hostages of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters, who have actually occupied this country in a political, military, and economic sense," the Russian leader said.
“The regime is not serving their national interest," he added.
Meanwhile, the Russian state media websites broadcasting President Vladimir Putin's address to the country's two houses of parliaments on Tuesday suffered an outage during his speech, Reuters reported.
Putin's speech comes couple of days before his ‘special military operation’ on Ukraine will turn a year old.
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