Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a speech to the nation in Moscow on Tuesday morning in which he reiterated his willingness to continue the invasion of Ukraine (called a “special military operation” by Russian propaganda) and made serious accusations against the West .
The speech was highly anticipated because some analysts had advanced the hypothesis that Putin would take advantage of the occasion to make some big announcements related to the war, but in reality the Russian president has disappointed expectations. The only relevant announcement, which arrived after almost two hours of speech, was the decision to suspend participation in the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), a treaty in force between Russia and the United States since 2011 which aims to monitor each other’s nuclear weapons.
The New START treaty is the latest in a series of nuclear arms control treaties that have been phased out or allowed to lapse over the past decade. Even New START, in reality, had long since been disregarded, because for some months Russia has been preventing the periodic inspections of its arsenal which would be envisaged by the text of the treaty. Among other things, New START limits the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the United States to 1,550 warheads each: the fact that Russia has dropped out could indicate that Putin intends to further extend Russia’s nuclear arsenal, which is already the largest in the world .
Putin spoke before the assembled Russian parliamentarians: it was the first speech of this type since the beginning of the invasion. The speech is usually an annual event in which the Russian president takes stock of the political, economic and social situation in the country, but last year it was not held: the last one dates back to April 2021. The speech was held a few days before the first anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24, and one day after US President Joe Biden’s first visit to Kiev.
Putin began his speech by speaking of the war situation in Ukraine, reiterating – as he has been doing for a year now – that the invasion had been decided by Russia to “liberate” Donbass, the eastern Ukrainian region where the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, formally Ukrainian territories that are run by Russian-backed separatists.
He also again falsely accused the Ukrainian government of having started the war by imposing “a neo-Nazi regime” in the Donbass, and claimed that Russia only intervened for this reason. The alleged connivance between the Ukrainian government and neo-Nazis is a thesis that Putin has been supporting for some time: according to many analysts, he would do so to leverage a feeling of pride that is still very widespread in Russia today for the contribution given by the Soviet Union to defeating Nazi Germany during World War II.
Putin continued his speech by saying that Russia would try to solve the problems in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions by peaceful means, but that meanwhile the Ukrainian government in agreement with Western countries would plan to attack those territories.
“We are not fighting against the Ukrainians,” said the Russian president, “They are hostages of the Kiev regime and its Western masters, who actually occupied the country for political, military and economic reasons.” He then spoke of the military aid that is coming to Ukraine from the West and warned that “the more Western long-range weapons are delivered to Ukraine” the more Russia will respond militarily.
– Read also: The “De-Russification” of Ukraine