“After the coup in kyiv, punitive military operations were immediately organized against the inhabitants of Donbas for not agreeing with the coup,” said the Russian president.
After denials about whether or not he would attend and repeated changes to the time of appearance, Russian President Vladimir Putin ended up moving this Friday to the Moscow Luzhniki Stadium to participate in the rally-concert on the occasion of the eighth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea . And he did it suddenly, when nobody expected it, and he disappeared shortly after, also suddenly. At least for the viewers, who watched the music burst onto the stage without knowing why Putin was no longer there and why he couldn’t finish his speech.
After about 20 minutes, the Rossiya-24 channel began to show the Russian president again, although on a delayed basis, who this time was able to finish his rally and served as the culmination of the event, which ended a few minutes later. Apparently, from the beginning, the television broadcast was not live, but delayed. Perhaps to head off any possible unforeseen event likely to overshadow Putin the evening. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, assured that what happened was “a technical failure of the server.”
In his speech, Putin stated that “the main goal of the current special operation in Ukraine is to save people from this suffering, from this genocide.” In his words, “after the coup in kyiv, punitive military operations were immediately organized against the inhabitants of Donbas” for not agreeing with that alleged coup.
The Russian president said that the residents of Donbas “were subjected to systematic cannon fire, air strikes, besieged, what is known as a genocide.” “But we knew what to do and what we have to continue doing now (…) we will carry out our plans to the end,” he added, alluding to his intention to continue the war until the total capitulation of Ukraine. He also had phrases of praise for the Russian military: «shoulder to shoulder, our soldiers help each other, support each other and, if necessary, protect their comrades from bullets with their own bodies on the battlefield. We haven’t had such unity in a long time.”
He also spoke of “how much we have done in these eight years to raise Crimea and Sevastopol.” “We have done things that are not immediately visible to the naked eye and are fundamental: gas supply, energy supply, community services, reconstruction of the road network, construction of new roads, highways and new bridges (…) it was necessary to get out of that humiliating situation, of that humiliating state in which Crimea and Sevastopol were immersed when they were part of this other state that financed these territories according to the so-called residual principle,” said the head of the Kremlin amid applause from those present, who waved flags and the letter Z, the symbol of Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.
There were tens of thousands of people in the stands. The stadium has a capacity for 80,000 spectators, but the Russian Interior Ministry said that this Friday there were more than 200,000, counting those who were outside. According to opposition sources, employees of state institutions and public or state-financed companies were taken to the rally by force. Many of them began to leave the venue before the end of the act and, precisely, before the arrival of Putin. A significant part was taken by bus from other locations near Moscow.
war party
The top Russian leader attended the event commemorating the annexation of Crimea after meeting his Security Council to analyze the progress of the military intervention in Ukraine, launched on February 24, and its repercussions worldwide. The Kremlin spokesman reported that during the meeting it was found that “the operation in Ukraine is proceeding as planned.” Unlike some of the recent meetings of this presidential body, no images were provided yesterday, not even at the beginning of the session.
Peskov also gave an account of the “hard” telephone conversation held this Friday by Putin with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to whom he told that “the kyiv regime seeks by all means to delay the negotiation process, presenting proposals that are not realistic”. The Russian president also spoke by phone this Friday with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron.
Russia intends to force Ukraine to accept Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the independence of the rebel republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (Dombás), a neutral status, ruling out its integration into NATO, the reduction of its Army, which would have to give up equipping with offensive weapons, and the “denazification” of the country, which would mean that kyiv would have to pass a law banning neo-Nazi organizations. However, the adviser to the Ukrainian Presidency, Oleksiy Arestovich, warned on Thursday that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, “demands that the possible agreement with Russia for the cessation of hostilities must recognize Ukraine’s borders existing in 1991”, when Crimea and the rebel territory of Donbas were part of the country. “Everything we agree on must be better than what was there before the war. If not, what use would the victims suffered by the Ukrainian people have been? », during the current conflict with Russia, Arestovich stressed.
Zelensky called on his collaborators on Friday to be discreet when reporting on the talks with Russia for a ceasefire. “This is not the time to reveal our negotiating tactics for peace, sovereignty, freedom, the territorial integrity of our state. You have to work in silence, more than on television, radio or Facebook. I think that’s the right thing to do,” he stressed.
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