The President of Russia, Vladimir Putinquestioned Ukraine’s sovereignty in a speech that has set off alarm bells in the West.
In an almost hour-long speech on Monday, Putin said that the neighboring country “never had a genuine state tradition” and that it was really “created” by Russia.
During the speech, described as “alarming” and “threatening” by international analysts and politicians, Putin also recognized the “independence” of two breakaway regions of Ukraine, in an act that raises fears of a potential intervention.
Hours after a meeting with the ministers of his Security Council, who one by one were in favor of the decision, Putin announced that his country is going to recognize Donetsk and Luhanskcontrolled by pro-Russian separatists since the 2014 war, as “republics”.
The passage, according to analysts, allows Russia to send its troops to those territories, which for the international community are part of Ukraine.
And indeed, shortly after it became known that Putin ordered the sending of “pacification troops” to the two regions.
Speech
The speech was used by Putin to once again express his regret over the fall of the Soviet Union and regret that the independence of the republics that comprised it was allowed.
“We gave these republics the right to leave the Union without any terms or conditions. That was crazy”, he said, while considering that his country “had been robbed” after the collapse of the USSR.
But the Russian president was even more emphatic with Ukraine, whom he seemed to define as a Russian state.
“Let me once again emphasize that Ukraine for us is not just a neighboring country. Is a integral part of our own history, culture, spiritual space“, said.
He also accused the Ukrainian government of being a “puppet” of the US and alleged, without foundation, that the Ukrainians are being “brutalized” by their leaders and that the country could obtain nuclear weapons and represent a greater threat to Ukraine. Russia.
He described Ukrainian politicians as corrupt and painted a surreal scene of the country, similar to the one that pro-Russian media have been presenting for weeks, without real arguments.
In his personal take on history, he referred to former communist leader Vladimir Lenin as Ukraine’s “author and architect” and threatened the neighboring country for trying to erase the communist legacy.
“So you want decommunization? That suits us. But let’s not stop halfway. We are ready to show you what true decommunization looks like.”
According to BBC diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams, much of Putin’s speech on Ukraine “It sounded like a fever dream.”.
“A nightmarish vision of [Ucrania como] a country economically crippled, totally corrupt, hell-bent on developing nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and ungrateful for all the generous attention Russia has lavished on it since independence,” he wrote.
“Putin is speaking from a very different place. This is not just a different perspective on history. He at times felt like a parallel universe.”
During the speech, Putin repeated again the dangers of Ukraine being admitted to NATO (the organization does not even have its acceptance on the agenda and it is only an aspiration of Kiev) and assured that if the country joins the alliance, Russia would be at risk of a “sudden attack”.
In an analysis of the speech, BBC Eastern Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford said Putin’s approach to Ukraine “felt obsessive, like a man who thinks of little else.”
“Sometimes it sounded like a presidential run [de Ucrania]. And, of course, there was his rewriting of Ukraine’s history, to claim that it has never really been a state. In all this, Ukraine is the battlefield. But it is also a risk game between Russia and the West, which quickly turns into a showdown,” he wrote.
According to Rainsford, the speech was delivered by an “angry, impatient and downright threatening” Putin.
“It felt like the president of Russia was pulling 20 years of pain out of his chest and responding.”
Several international analysts have drawn attention that Ukraine may be just the first chapter in Putin’s dream of re-establishing the “Soviet empire”.
This same Monday, at the meeting of the Russian Security Council, the head of the National Guard, Viktor Zolotov, hinted that the Kremlin needed control of something more than the eastern regions of Ukraine to “combat” what he defined as “threats from the West.” “We don’t have a border with Ukraine, we have a border with the United States, because they are the masters in that country. Of course we must recognize the republics, but I want to say that we must go further to defend our country”, argued the military.
reactions
Putin’s speech quickly raised alarm bells in Ukraine and in the international community.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, expressed concern to the BBC about the Russian president’s words.
“I have to tell him, when a nuclear powered country calls your nation a ‘historical mistake to be fixed’, yes, you have to worry about what they have in mind”.
The leaders of the United States, Germany and France called their security councils for an emergency meeting and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the move will violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and is a “very dark signal”.
The governments of Paris and Berlin, which according to the Kremlin were previously informed of Putin’s intention to recognize the independence of the rebel regions, expressed their “disappointment” with the Russian decision and President Emmanuel Macron called an emergency meeting of the Council. UN Security.
The Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawieckidemanded “immediate sanctions” against the Kremlin for the measure and requested an emergency meeting of the European Council.
According to the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent, James Landale, the recognition is a critical moment for the crisis in Ukraine, surrounded for weeks by some 150,000 soldiers and heavy artillery from Russia.
“The recognition of Donetsk and Lugansk ends the Minsk Agreement. It potentially paves the way for Russian forces to enter Donbas,” he said. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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