Russia-Ukraine war: In his end-of-the-year message, Putin defended invasion, saying 2022 is key to ‘total sovereignty’

Moments before at least ten explosions shook Kiev, the capital of Ukrainethis Saturday the Russian president, Vladimir Putin addressed his New Year’s message to the Russians and spoke of a very difficult 2022 during which “Russia has strengthened its full sovereignty“.

“This has been a year of difficult and necessary decisions, of very important steps to win Russia’s full sovereignty and a powerful consolidation of our society,” Putin said in a message he gave accompanied by the military.

Putin called 2022 a year “that put many things in their place, sharply differentiated courage and heroism from betrayal and lack of character, proved that there is no greater strength than love of family and relatives, that fidelity to friends and battle mates, fidelity to the homeland”.

For the Russian president, 2022 “was a year of crucial and fateful events” which laid “the foundations of our common future, of our true independence”.

“That’s why we fight today, we defend our people in our historical territoriesPutin said, referring to Ukrainians living in the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions annexed by Russia last September during the invasion.

This message from Putin contrasts with that of Christmas, when I speak of willingness to negotiate. “We are ready to negotiate with all those involved on acceptable solutions, but it depends on them: we are not the ones who refuse to negotiate,” the Russian president said.

“It’s not us who refuse to negotiate, it’s them,” he said, reiterating the same stance the Kremlin has taken in recent months as its 10-month-long war in Ukraine loses momentum.

On February 25 of this year, Russia launched an invasion against Ukraine, in a military aggression not seen since 1945.

Putin and his alliance with China

As the war in Ukraine approaches a year, with the United States holding hands in Kiev and China besieging Taiwan with giant fleets of warplanes, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met this Friday, via video conference, to leave. theirs is “the best relationship in history”. The message went straight to Washington.

The New York Times characterized the match as one between two powerful men in a moment of weakness. China is facing a wave of out-of-control covid and is in no position to risk sanctions (should it invade Taiwan). The newspaper also stressed Russia’s urgent need for Chinese assistance to get out of the Ukrainian swamp, where he is buried in solitude.

“Our relations gracefully withstand all tests, demonstrate maturity and stability, and continue to expand dynamically,” the Kremlin head told Xi.

According to Putin, relations between Moscow and Beijing are “the best in history and a model of cooperation between the great powers of the 21st century”.

“With you we see in the same way the causes, the trend and the logic of the transformations of the global geopolitical landscape”, he added.

With information from EFE