Putin did not mention Ukraine or the “special operation” in his New Year's speech. Zelenskyi repeated the word war 14 times in his speech.
Russian president Vladimir Putin gave his traditional New Year's speech on Sunday but used quite moderate expressions.
The speech did not mention Ukraine or the term “special operation” used by Putin for Russia's war of aggression. Instead, Putin talked about moving forward and creating the future. The president named the next year in Russia the “year of families”.
Putin's speech was recorded traditionally with a picture of the Kremlin in the background.
Sunday's the message of the speech was very different from a year ago. In December 2022, the speech was exceptionally recorded in front of Russia's Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don.
At the time, Putin declared that Russia would never allow the West to “take advantage of Ukraine to break up and weaken Russia.”
He accused the West of breaking the peace and supporting neo-Nazis.
Putin's the speech aimed at the year 2024 did not mention the West either. Putin called for the unity of the people regarding the “difficult task” and praised the soldiers fighting on the front lines.
Soldiers fighting for truth and justice are our heroes, he stated.
Putin's speech lasted about four minutes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyi addressed Ukrainians on New Year's Eve.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyi on the other hand, he mentioned the word war 14 times in his 20-minute speech, the news agency Reuters reports.
Zelenskyi stated that the biggest achievement of the past year was that Ukraine became stronger.
“No matter how many missiles the enemy launches, no matter the bombings and strikes – however vicious, merciless and massive – that the enemy does in an attempt to break the Ukrainians … we will still rise,” Zelenskyi stated.
Russia is said to have struck on New Year's Eve with 90 drones, which was According to the Ukrainian Air Force, a record number.
The first day of the year, Monday, is a day of mourning in the country's capital, Kyiv, when those who died in Russian airstrikes on Friday are remembered.
Friday's attacks are said to have been the most destructive since the beginning of the war. At least 27 civilians died in Kyiv alone.
New Year's Eve was celebrated in Kyiv.
Zelenskyi in his New Year's speech also mentioned Ukraine's growing production of airplanes.
He predicted that Ukraine would receive one million airplanes during the year.
Russia got its first taste of this on Saturday, when Ukraine was said to have carried out its most destructive series of drone attacks on the Russian side.
of the British broadcasting company BBC according to a security official interviewed who spoke on condition of anonymity, Ukraine had targeted military targets in the Belgorod region with more than 70 drones.
Russia said 24 civilians were killed in the attacks. Ukraine defended itself by saying that the civilian casualties were due to insufficient Russian air defense.
Putin did not mention the Belgorod attack or the estimated hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who have died in Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine in his New Year's speech.
His re-election as President of Russia is expected to take place in March of this year.
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