On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia will achieve its objectives in Ukraine and that he would not surrender to what he saw as a Western plot to gain global domination and dismember Russia.
Three weeks into a war that has killed thousands of people and prompted millions of Ukrainians to abandon their homes, Putin said Russia was willing to discuss a neutral status for Ukraine.
He stated that Russia’s ‘secret military operation’ was ‘going according to plan.’
Putin acknowledged the pain that Western sanctions were causing the Russian economy in a televised speech to cabinet ministers, but asserted that Russia could absorb the blow.
In his attacks on the West and Ukraine, he showed no signs of easing up.
‘The pro-Nazi administration in Kyiv could have gotten its hands on weapons of mass devastation in the near future, and its target, of course, would have been Russia,’ Putin stated.
Putin has often referred to Ukraine’s democratically elected government as neo-Nazis intent on genocide against Russian-speakers in the country’s east, a charge the West dismisses as false war propaganda.
He claimed that Western countries planned to convert Russia into a ‘weak dependent country’ by violating its territorial integrity and dismembering the country in a way that suited them.
‘They don’t know our history or our people,’ Putin remarked on the 21st day of the war if the West imagined Russia would collapse or back down.
‘Hostile geopolitical aims lie behind the so-called collective West’s disingenuous discourse and current deeds. They simply do not want Russia to be strong and independent.’
He stated that Russia was willing to negotiate about Ukraine’s neutral position in talks:
‘We were ready and are ready to debate as part of negotiations the subject of principle for our nation and its future – Ukraine’s neutral status, demilitarisation, and denazification.’
Ukraine has stated that it is eager to discuss an end to the conflict, but that it would not capitulate or accept Russian ultimatums.
Putin said inflation and unemployment would rise, and structural adjustments to the economy would be required, in his most clear admission of the hardship caused by Western sanctions. He did, however, pledge assistance to families with children.
He claimed that the West had effectively declared Russia in default as part of its sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, but that the conflict had just served as a pretext for the penalties.
‘The West makes no attempt to hide the fact that their goal is to harm the whole Russian economy, every Russian,’ Putin added.
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