Vladimir Putin vows victory over Ukraine in speech to mark decisive WWII battle
- President Vladimir Putin compared Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to victory in the battle of Stalingrad in WWII
- He said Russia was sure it would be victorious in Ukraine, as it had been 80 years ago against Germany
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday compared today’s fight against Ukraine and its Western allies to Russia’s victory against Nazi Germany in World War II, in a speech marking 80 years since the decisive battle of Stalingrad.
Putin evoked the spirit of the Soviet army that defeated German forces at Stalingrad saying Russia would defeat a Ukraine in the grip of a new incarnation of Nazism. He said Russia was sure it would be victorious in Ukraine, as it had been 80 years ago.
He said Russia was once again confronting Germany, as he criticised Berlin’s promise to deliver Leopard 2 tanks to support Ukraine on the battlefield.
In a fiery speech in Volgograd, known as Stalingrad until 1961, Putin lambasted Germany for helping to arm Ukraine and said, not for the first time, that he was ready to draw on Russia’s entire arsenal, which includes nuclear weapons.
“Unfortunately we see that the ideology of Nazism in its modern form and manifestation again directly threatens the security of our country,” Putin told an audience of army officers and members of local patriotic and youth groups.
“Again and again we have to repel the aggression of the collective West. It’s incredible but it’s a fact: we are again being threatened with German Leopard tanks with crosses on them.”