President Vladimir V. Putin on Friday asserted that Russia would take control of four regions of Ukraine and criticized the United States for “Satanism” in a speech marking an escalation in Moscow’s war against Russia. Ukraine and positioning Russia, in terms of apparent confrontation, against an existential battle with Western elites he sees as the “enemy”.
Addressing hundreds of Russian lawmakers and governors in a large Kremlin hall, Putin said that residents of four regions – which are still partially controlled by Ukrainian forces – would become citizens of the country. Russia “forever”. He then held a signing ceremony with Russian-installed heads of state in those areas to begin the formal annexation process, before joining hands and chanting “Russia! Russia!”
Mr. Putin’s speech came amid confusion in Russia on the battlefield, where Ukrainian forces have won stunning victories in recent weeks in the east. Even as the Russian leader spoke, officials said Ukrainian troops were getting closer to encirclement The Russian-occupied town of Lyman, An important strategic center in the Donetsk region lies within territory that Putin is claiming.
Even by Mr. Putin’s increasingly adversarial standards, the speech was extraordinary, a mixture of derision and threats mixed with conspiracies against the US-led “new colonial system”. with a call to the world to see Russia as the leader of the uprising against the Americans. power.
He called “the ruling elite of the so-called West” “the enemy,” a word he rarely used to refer to the West – and struck a tone of anger and defiance.
“It’s not just Western elites that deny national sovereignty and international law,” he said in the 37-minute speech. “Their hegemony is marked by totalitarianism, autocracy and racism.”
Western leaders have denounced Russia’s annexation as illegitimate and earlier “referendums” – intended to show local support for joining Russia – as fraudulent. The Biden administration announced new sanctions in response to the Kremlin’s move.
President Biden was quick to denounce Putin’s annexation of the four territories, saying they “have no legitimacy” and adding that “the United States will always respect internationally recognized borders.” of Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian government has rejected Mr. Putin’s claims and vowed to recapture Russian-held territory in the east and south. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to Putin’s speech on Friday by announcing that he fast track your country’s application to join the NATO alliance. In one video, he accused the Kremlin of trying to “steal something that doesn’t belong”. “Ukraine will not allow it,” he said.
Putin stressed that Russia’s position on annexing the four territories is non-negotiable, adding that Russia will defend them “with all the forces and means at our disposal.” .
“I call on the Kyiv regime to cease fire and all military action immediately, and ask the Ukrainian government to ‘come back to the negotiating table’,” he said.
“But we will not discuss the decisions of the people of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson,” he continued, referring to the annexation of four Ukrainian regions. “It was done. Russia will not betray it.”
Mr. Putin has made the conflict with the West even more acute than in previous speeches, circling the West’s military actions over the centuries to denounce the US-led world order over the basically evil, corrupt and aiming to destroy Russia.
“The suppression of freedom is taking the outline of a ‘reverse religion’, real Satanism,” Putin said, asserting that Western liberal values on issues like Gender identity is tantamount to “denial of the person”.
However, Mr. Putin offered some new details on what is now perhaps the biggest concern in Western capitals – whether, and when, he might be prepared to use weapons. mass destruction to force Ukraine to surrender or not. His spokesman said earlier in the day that after the four regions were merged – a move that hardly any other country could recognize – an attack on those areas would be considered a attack on Russia.
Without being blunt, Mr. Putin hinted that the role of nuclear weapons in war was on his mind. Putin described the West as “deceptive and hypocritical,” noting that the United States was the only country that had used nuclear weapons in war. Then he added: “They’ve set a precedent, by the way.”
Valerie Hopkins and Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.
