MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a nuclear warning to the West on Friday about Ukraine, suspending a landmark nuclear arms control treaty and saying a new strategic system was in place. warned that Russia may resume nuclear testing.
Cuba in 1962 Almost a year after ordering the invasion that sparked the biggest confrontation with the West since the missile crisis, Putin says Russia will achieve its war goals and accuses the West of destroying Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the West of igniting and perpetuating the war in Ukraine almost a year after the Kremlin’s invasion of the neighboring country, which killed tens of thousands of people, and called on Moscow.
In his long-delayed State of the Union address, Putin portrayed his country and Ukraine as victims of the West’s duplicity, and it is Russia, not Ukraine, that is fighting for its very existence.
“We are not at war with the Ukrainian people,” Putin said in his speech on Friday, days before the one-year anniversary of the war. Ukraine “became hostage to the Kiev regime and Western rulers who virtually occupied the country.”
The speech reiterated a series of grievances that the Russian leader has frequently used to justify the widely condemned war, pledging not to loosen its military forces on Ukrainian territories he had illegally annexed. The apparent rejection of all peace offers in the raging conflict has revived a new fear: the Cold War.
Russia marched in 2 On February 24, 2022, he rushed towards Kiev. However, Moscow forces withdrew due to strong Ukrainian resistance supported by Western weapons. Ukraine has recaptured much of the territory originally occupied by Russia, but in other areas the two sides have clashed head-to-head.
The war has revived old rifts between Russia and the West, revitalized the NATO alliance, and posed the greatest threat to Putin’s more than two decades of rule. Fresh from a surprise visit to Kiev, US President Joe Biden was planning a speech of his own when he visited Poland on Tuesday to solidify Western ties. Observers were expected to scrutinize Putin’s speeches for signs of how Russia’s leaders see the conflict, where to take it and how to end it. , which requires the president to deliver a speech every year, Putin did not make a speech in 2022 after his troops invaded Ukraine and suffered repeated setbacks.
While much of the speech dealt with old territory, Putin significantly increased tensions with Washington by declaring that Moscow would stop participating in the last remaining nuclear disarmament deal with the United States.
The so-called New START Treaty limits the number of long-range nuclear warheads that can be deployed and limits the use of nuclear-capable missiles.
In his speech, Putin said, “Western elites are not trying to hide their aim to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia.” “They are turning a local conflict into a global one.”
Many observers predicted Putin’s speech would address the rift between Moscow and the West.
Putin also accused Western countries of targeting Russian culture, religion and values.
The Kremlin this year banned media from “unfriendly” countries, including the US, UK and EU countries. Peskov said journalists from those countries could watch the broadcast and cover the speeches.
He previously told reporters that the delay in his speech was related to Putin’s “work plan,” but Russian media reports linked it to a backlash by the Russian military.The Russian president said in 2017 had already postponed his State of the Union address for the year. Last year, the Kremlin also canceled two major annual events: Putin’s press conference and an in-depth phone marathon for people to ask the president questions.
