Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday railed against the West in a state-of-the-nation address at the Kremlin in Moscow, while US President Joe Biden was in Poland after a surprise visit to Kyiv amid the Russian war against Ukraine.
“It’s they who have started the war. And we are using force to end it,” Putin said before an audience of lawmakers, state officials and soldiers who have fought in Ukraine.
While the Russian constitution mandates that the president deliver the speech annually, Putin never gave one last year as his troops rolled into Ukraine.
Photo: EPA-EFE / DMITRY ASTAKHOV / SPUTNIK / GOVERNMENT PRESS SERVICE POOL
Before the speech, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian leader would focus on the “special military operation” in Ukraine, as Moscow calls it, and Russia’s economy and social issues.
The West is aware that “it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield,” so it launches “aggressive information attacks” by “misconstruing historical facts,” attacking Russian culture, religion and values, Putin said in the speech broadcast by all state TV channels.
Putin said that his forces are protecting civilians in regions of Ukraine that Moscow has since annexed.
“We are defending people’s lives, our home,” he said. “And the West is striving for an unlimited domination.”
Putin also said that Russia would suspend its participation in a treaty aimed at keeping a lid on nuclear weapons expansion.
The so-called New START Treaty was signed by Russia and the US in 2010, capping the number of long-range nuclear warheads they can deploy and limiting the use of missiles that can carry atomic weapons.
Putin said that Russia was not fully withdrawing from the treaty yet, but it must stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the US does so.
In Warsaw, Biden’s consultations with allies from NATO’s eastern flank were ongoing at press time last night.
Biden met with Polish President Andrzej Duda and was to deliver an address from Warsaw’s Royal Castle, where he was expected to highlight the commitment of the central European country and other allies to Ukraine over the past year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that Biden’s address would not be “some kind of head to head” with Putin’s speech.
“This is not a rhetorical contest with anyone else,” Sullivan said ahead of both speeches. “This is an affirmative statement of values, a vision for what the world we’re both trying to build and defend should look like.”
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