EPA
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NOS News•today, 02:09
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“If the West wants to beat us, then they should try.” These words were heard on Russian state television when President Putin addressed the State Duma – the Russian parliament – yesterday. It was one of the most menacing speeches since Russia invaded Ukraine.
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Putin addressed Kiev’s western allies directly in the Duma. He accused them of fomenting hostilities. “The West wants to fight us to the last Ukrainian. That is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it seems to be going in that direction,” said the president. When Putin talks about ‘the West’, he mainly means NATO, led by the United States.
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Putin challenged the Western countries that support Kiev to try to defeat Russia. “We hear they want to beat us on the battlefield. Well, let them try,” Putin said. “Russia hasn’t even started seriously yet.”
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Uplifting message for your own audience
They are threatening words full of war rhetoric towards the West, but they are also an uplifting message for their own audience. Because even among Russians, doubts are growing whether everything is really going “according to plan”, as the Kremlin and the state media keep insisting. And military analysts also have many doubts about how much clout the Russian army still has after these months.
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The Russian parliament last week passed a law that makes it possible to force companies to do extra work in the interest of the Russian army. For example, companies may be forced to work on weekends or have to free up extra hands to repair military vehicles.
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Those defiant words are again in line with Kremlin rhetoric, which maintains that Russia launched a so-called “military operation” because it would have no choice due to threats from the West, and would only hit military infrastructure. Moscow accuses the West of waging a proxy war against Russia by imposing economic sanctions and supplying Ukraine with weapons. There is no mention of their own role in the many bombings and civilian casualties.
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Putin also cited Western sanctions against Russia in his speech. According to him, the West has failed to “divide our society and demoralize our people”. Any attempt by the West to impose its world order on Russia “is doomed to fail,” he said. According to him, it is time for a ‘multipolar world’, in which the West is no longer dominant.
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Diplomacy
Finally, Putin spoke for the first time in weeks about the possibility of possible diplomatic talks. “We do not reject any peace negotiations,” Putin said. “But,” he threatened, “as long as they are rejected, the conflict will continue, and after that it will become increasingly difficult to negotiate with us.” With which he again placed all blame on the West or Ukraine itself.
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The speech comes a few days after the eastern Ukrainian region of Lugansk fell completely into Russian hands. The focus is now mainly on the conquest of the entire Donetsk province and the fighting there is expected to intensify in the coming period.
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