Russian President Vladimir Putin said a word today before the national council where he introduces the full image of the scene over the war in Ukraine, and the future prospect of the fight as well as when it will continue.

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Edited by| paul Mitchel

politics section - CJ journalist

21 Feb. -2023 - Moscow

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Mr. President Putin said if we have to blame someone, it is the Western countries who started and continue the war in Ukraine, affirming that Ukraine is a “hostage” of leaders in Kyiv and Western nations.

“We aren’t fighting the Ukrainian people,” Putin said, according to The Associated Press. “[Ukraine] has become a hostage of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters, which have effectively occupied the country.”

Putin also accused the West of attacking Russia’s economy with sanctions and launching “aggressive information attacks” against Russian culture and values in his annual address on Tuesday.

“Western elites aren’t trying to conceal their goals, to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ to Russia,” he said. “They intend to transform the local conflict into a global confrontation.”

“It’s they who have started the war. And we are using force to end it,” Putin added.

 

Putin also said that Moscow was suspending its participation in the New START treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States. His decision sharply ups the ante amid tensions with the U.S. over the fighting in Ukraine.

Putin’s address comes just days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia recently launched its long-anticipated counter-offensive in eastern Ukraine, sending in tens of thousands of new conscripts and renewing its widespread bombing of the country.
During a surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday, President Biden announced half a billion dollars of additional aid to Ukraine, including military equipment. The announcement came as Biden faces mounting pressure from Kyiv and at home to follow its recent offer of battle tanks with a supply of F-16 fighter jets.