Putin guarantees in his first words after the invasion that the “noble” objectives of “helping” the pro-Russians will be achieved
In his first public speech since launching his troops against Ukraine, Vladimir Putin declared on Tuesday his conviction that the “noble” goals of “helping” the Donbas separatists will be achieved through the “special military operation,” a euphemism with which in Moscow refer to the war, the mention of which is forbidden to the Russian media.
Putin made these statements at the ‘Vostochni’ cosmodrome, in the Amur region, in the Russian Far East, in the company of his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, on the occasion of Cosmonautics Day. During the visit, in a clear staging prepared in advance, a worker asked if “will the goals and objectives of the operation be met?” in Ukraine with the total seizure of Donbas, to which the head of the Kremlin replied: «So it will be. No doubt. The goals are absolutely understandable and noble.”
He recalled that in his speech announcing the start of the invasion, he stressed that its purpose is to “help the people in Donbas.” In his words, “we know that today our officers are participating in a special military operation, providing assistance to those people’s republics. And they act bravely, competently, effectively and with results, using the most modern types of weapons.
Putin continued his long reply to the employee of Roskosmos, the Russian space agency, saying that “what we are doing is helping people, saving people, on the one hand, and on the other, simply taking measures to ensure the safety of the Russia itself. Obviously, we had no other choice. We have made the right decision. It was inevitable, as Ukraine began to become an anti-Russian stronghold. The outbreaks of nationalism and neo-Nazism that had been there for a long time reappeared.
THE KEYS:
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The objective.
“We are simply taking measures to ensure the security of our territory” -
Sanctions.
“They are not going to isolate us. It is impossible to isolate anyone in the modern world, least of all such a large country»
He also referred to the sanctions adopted by the West against Russia. “They are not going to isolate us and, in general, it is impossible to isolate anyone in the modern world, least of all a country as large as Russia,” he told the space base employees. “Therefore, we will only work with partners who want to interact with us,” he added.
“False information”
Shortly after, Putin commented for the first time on the massacre in the town of Bucha. “This is false information. It is a counterfeit similar to that of the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, whose alleged presence became the reason for the US invasion. Referring to some documents that Lukashenko gave him. He said that in Bucha “the conditions were created to organize this provocation.” Next to him, Lukashenko assured without providing a single detail that “what happened in Bucha was a psychological operation carried out by the British.”
Faced with the different reports that suggest that the Kremlin needs to hurry to gain full control of Donbas and thus be able to present some kind of achievement before the celebration of the Victory Day over Nazi Germany, on May 9, Putin stated that henceforth everything will be done “calmly.” «Our mission is to meet the objectives set by minimizing losses. We are going to act harmoniously, according to the plan proposed from the beginning by the General Staff,” Putin stressed.
He denied that his forces had run into difficulties in the face of Ukrainian resistance and therefore had to give up assaulting kyiv and other cities to concentrate efforts in Donbas. The top leader insisted that the operations in other parts of Ukraine “were aimed at separating the Ukrainian forces from the Donbas, hitting them and destroying their military infrastructure.”
“I often hear the question ‘can you go faster?’ Yes, it is possible, but this implies intensifying operations, which unfortunately would have had an effect on the number of casualties,” he stressed without saying a word about the losses suffered by his Army and that he did admit last week, although without specifying figures. , his spokesman, Dmitri Peskov.
In relation to the unsuccessful talks to try to achieve a cessation of hostilities, Putin accused kyiv of “lack of coherence”, of “changing” its negotiating position all the time, but did not speak of the inflexibility on the territorial issue, in his refusal to discuss the status of Donetsk and Lugansk, let alone Crimea.
The West investigates whether the Kremlin has used chemical weapons in Mariupol
D. MARTINEZ
The battle is intensifying in Ukraine with the implication of chemical weapons, the kyiv authorities denounced on Tuesday. During the night the invaders used a “poisonous substance of unknown origin against soldiers and civilians” in Mariupol.
The attack took place at the Azovstal metallurgical plant hours after Eduard Basurin, a pro-Russian leader in Donetsk, spoke of using chemical weapons to get “rats out of their holes”, referring to the 1,500 Azov Regiment soldiers defending this port enclave and were in the facilities.
The EU denounced on Tuesday that using chemical elements as weapons is a “war crime” and represents a “violation” of the convention on this type of arsenal, to which Russia is a party. The United Kingdom, for its part, maintains an open investigation into the attack. If the use of chemical weapons is confirmed, there will be “an answer” yes or yes. “These reports, if true, reflect concerns we had about the potential for Russia to use various riot control agents,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
This event would be one of the “brutal tortures” carried out by the Kremlin during the invasion, denounced Volodímir Zelenski, who mentioned “hundreds of rapes”, specifically “underage girls, very young children and even babies”.
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