Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 9 defended the conflict in Ukraine during his annual “Victory Day” speech, calling on the country’s military to seek victory.
Defending Russia “when its fate is being decided has always been sacred,” he told a crowd in Moscow. “Today, you are fighting for our people in Donbas, for the security of Russia, our homeland.”
There was speculation that the Russian leader would use Victory Day to announce that Russia had won or would announce an all-out war against Ukraine, as Moscow’s forces have remained bogged down since the start of the Feb. 24 invasion. Putin, however, didn’t use the speech to announce an escalation in the conflict, instead he said Western powers had provoked Russia.
NATO, he claimed, started to actively develop military infrastructure in portions of Ukraine that are next to Russia, saying that such moves create a threat to Moscow’s sovereignty.
“We saw how the military infrastructure was unfolding, how hundreds of foreign advisers had begun to work there, with the most modern weapons being regularly delivered from NATO countries,” Putin said.
“The danger was growing every day. Russia offered a preemptive rebuff to the aggression. ... This was a forced, timely move and the only correct decision, one taken by a strong and independent country,” he said, arguing that the West and NATO had been “preparing for the invasion of our land, including Crimea,” according to a translation.
Meanwhile, on May 9, Putin’s Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Kyiv’s forces would win and wouldn’t give up a single parcel of land.
“On the Day of Victory over Nazism, we are fighting for a new victory. The road to it is difficult, but we have no doubt that we will win,” Zelenskyy said, according to reports.
Ukraine isn’t holding any public events for May 9 because of the fear of shelling. Some places have imposed a hard curfew from May 8 to May 10.
Azovstal, a vast complex of buildings and underground tunnels, is the last holdout for Ukrainian troops in Mariupol, whose capture would help link Russian-seized areas in southern and eastern Ukraine and cut Ukraine off from the Azov Sea.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said Russian forces are now trying to advance in eastern Ukraine, where the situation is “difficult,” but had moved back from the city of Kharkiv, where a local official reported heavy Russian shelling.
