Vladimir Putin says that Russia and Ukraine “share a sorrow” and that Russia is not to blame for the conflict in Ukraine.
In a televised meeting with top military leaders, the Russian president said that he still sees Ukraine as a “brotherly nation.”
President Putin invaded Ukraine in February with up to 200,000 troops, starting a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives.
He stated that “the policy of third countries” was to blame for the violence.
Outside of Russia, the theory that Western expansion is to blame has always been shown to be wrong.
During his speech, President Putin said that the West had started “brainwashing” post-Soviet countries, starting with Ukraine.
“We tried for years to establish friendly ties with Ukraine, giving loans and inexpensive electricity, but it did not succeed,” he stated.
President Putin’s persistent worries appear to be related to NATO’s expansion since the Soviet Union’s fall in 1991.
Even though the Kremlin has said for a long time that letting former Soviet allies join NATO threatens the alliance’s security, Nato’s main goal after World War II was to stop Russia from expanding.
After Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Kremlin president of Ukraine, lost his job in 2014 because of months of protests, tensions between the Kremlin and the West grew.
“There is nothing to accuse us of,” President Putin added in his speech. Ukrainians have long been seen as a brotherly people, and I still feel that way.
Although the current situation is tragic, we are not to blame.
In a round of assaults against Ukraine‘s electrical infrastructure that began on October 10, Russia has fired over a thousand missiles and attack drones made in Iran.
Millions have been in the dark since the attacks.
Military leaders promised to carry on the ostensible “special military operation” through 2023.
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February, President Putin promised that only trained forces would take part.
But by September, all had altered as he declared a “partial mobilization,” which might have resulted in the enlistment of hundreds of thousands of Russians.
The Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, has now suggested that the minimum age for conscription be raised.
Russians can now be drafted for forced military service if they are 18 to 27 years old; Mr. Shoigu is now recommending that this also apply to those who are 21 to 30 years old.
Mr. Shoigu also said that bases would be set up in Berdyansk and Mariupol, two port cities that the Russian offensive took over.
But recently, Ukrainian forces have made some big steps forward. For example, they took back Kherson, which was the only provincial capital that Russian forces had held since the invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelensky gave the speech on his first trip outside of Ukraine since Russia invaded ten months earlier.
BBC
