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Putin accuses West of stoking global war, US calls the claim 'absurd'
Flanked by four Russian tricolour flags either side, Putin told Russia's political and military elite that Russia would "carefully and consistently resolve the tasks facing us" in Ukraine.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his annual state of the nation address at the Gostiny Dvor conference centre in central Moscow on February 21, 2023.
(AFP/Sergei SAVOSTYANOV )
P
resident Vladimir Putin on Tuesday vowed to continue with Russia's year-long war in Ukraine and accused the US-led NATO alliance of fanning the flames of the conflict in the mistaken belief that it could defeat Moscow in a global confrontation.
Flanked by four Russian tricolour flags either side, Putin told Russia's political and military elite that Russia would "carefully and consistently resolve the tasks facing us" in Ukraine.
Besides the promise to continue the war and warnings to the West of a global confrontation, Putin also sought to justify the war, saying it had been forced on Russia and that he understood the pain of the families of those who had fallen in battle.
"The people of Ukraine have become the hostage of the Kyiv regime and its Western overlords, who have effectively occupied this country in the political, military and economic sense," Putin said.
"They intend to transform a local conflict into a phase of global confrontation. This is exactly how we understand it all and we will react accordingly, because in this case we are talking about the existence of our country."
Defeating Russia, he said, was impossible. The 70-year-old Kremlin chief said Russia would never yield to Western attempts to divide its society, adding that a majority of Russians supported the war.
Responding to the speech, a top US official on Tuesday described President Putin’s accusations that Russia had been threatened by the West as justification for invading Ukraine as "absurdity."
