Vladimir Putin accuses West of stoking global war to destroy Russia
- Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers major address as invasion of Ukraine nears second year
- US President Joe Biden expected to give speech in Poland following his surprise visit to Kyiv
The West, Putin said, had let the genie out of the bottle in a host of regions of across the world by sowing chaos and war.
“The people of Ukraine have become the hostage of the Kyiv regime and its Western overlords, who have effectively occupied this country in the political, military and economic sense,” Putin said.
“They intend to translate the local conflict into a global confrontation, we understand it this way and will react accordingly,” Putin said.
Defeating Russia, he said, was impossible.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 last year and has been struggling ever since to gain control over its neighbour.
Tuesday’s speech to members of both houses of parliament in Moscow was Putin’s 18th Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, an occasion which largely outlines the nation’s condition and outlook.
Putin last delivered his address to parliament in April 2021. He did not give one in 2022, citing the “dynamics of events”.
Putin’s speech came as China’s top diplomat was due in Moscow with proposals for a political settlement to the war.
03:29
US president Joe Biden pledges more weapons for Ukraine on surprise visit to Kyiv
It was first visit by a US president to a war zone without US military being on the ground.
“When Putin launched his invasion nearly one year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could outlast us. But he was dead wrong,” Biden said.
“The cost that Ukraine has had to pay is extraordinarily high. Sacrifices have been far too great. … We know that there will be difficult days and weeks and years ahead.”
The Ukraine conflict is by far the biggest bet by a Kremlin chief since at least the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union – and a gamble Western leaders such as Biden say Putin must lose.
Russian forces have suffered three major battlefield reversals since the war began but still control around one fifth of Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of men have been killed, and Putin, 70, now says Russia is locked in an existential battle with an arrogant West which he says wants to carve up Russia and steal its vast natural resources.
Russia’s economy is under significant pressure, due to Western sanctions imposed in response to the war, leading many Russians to complain about rising prices, the high cost of living and the gloomy prospects for the nation.
With the West supporting Ukraine, China’s position has come under scrutiny in recent weeks. In public, China has remained neutral, despite signing a “no limits” friendship pact with Russia weeks before the invasion.
Top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on Monday called for a negotiated settlement to the Ukraine war during a stopover in Hungary ahead of an expected visit to Moscow for talks.
Ukraine says any diplomatic solution requires the withdrawal of Russian forces from its territory.
Wang, China’s former foreign minister, now heads the office of the Communist Party’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission and is the top foreign affairs aide to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Washington has said in recent days it is concerned Beijing could begin supplying Moscow with arms. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the United States was “in no position to make demands of China”.
Reuters, Agence France-Presse, dpa
