FLY. Vladimir Putin has once again made his loud voice about the war in Ukraine. In a new speech full of rhetoric, and duly broadcast on state TV, the Kremlin leader declared that it is “impossible” for Russia to withdraw from the Ukrainian territories occupied by its troops in the bloody invasion launched two years ago: the same ones who Moscow was annexed illegally in internationally condemned farce referendums. Then he took things further by stating that “the initiative” on the battlefield “is completely in the hands of the Russian armed forces” and if the situation “continues” like this “the Ukrainian state could suffer an irreparable and very serious blow”.
Putin's words come two months before the presidential elections scheduled for March and for which the Russian dictator has decided to bet heavily on the war card. But also in the aftermath of the announcement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of «preparations for a global summit on peace at the level of leaders in Switzerland». In his speech, Putin essentially once again rejected Kiev's peace plan, which provides for the restoration of Ukrainian territorial integrity and the withdrawal of Russian troops from all occupied territories (including Crimea invaded in 2014). He then called the Ukrainian officials “idiots”, claiming that if Kiev had not, in his opinion, “refused to dialogue” with the Russian authorities who attacked it – according to Moscow under pressure from the former British Prime Minister Johnson, who however he strongly denies – the war “would have ended a year and a half ago”. Almost at the same time, from the Davos summit Zelensky reiterated his position against a “freezing” of the conflict which according to him would not stop the invasion of Russian troops. “Putin is a predator who is not satisfied with frozen products,” the Ukrainian president declared yesterday.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive that began last summer does not appear to have achieved the results hoped for by the Kiev government, and in the last year – although the bloody fighting has never stopped – the front line has not undergone major upheavals. Putin meanwhile appears increasingly aggressive in his statements on the war. And in the meantime it consolidates its relations with the North Korean regime, whose Foreign Minister, Choe Son Hui, was at the Kremlin yesterday to shake hands with the Russian dictator. A meeting that took place just as the West is increasingly accusing Russia of receiving weapons from North Korea in violation of UN sanctions, and less than two weeks after the White House accused Kremlin troops of having bombed Ukraine with North Korean ballistic missiles.
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