“We will achieve our goals, there is no doubt,” Putin told workers at the Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s Far East, in his first public comment on the war since his forces were forced to withdraw from northern Ukraine earlier in the day. from a week. “His goals are very clear and noble,” Putin said of Russia’s military campaign as he stood next to his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, during a visit to mark the 61st anniversary of the first manned spaceflight. Yuri Gagarin. It was only his second public appearance in a week, following a brief appearance at the funeral of supranationalist politician Vladimir Zirinovsky, in which he made no direct reference to the war. His recent low profile marked a radical change for a leader who was ubiquitous on Russian television in the early days of the war. Speaking later in a televised press conference, Putin denied Ukraine’s testimony that Russian troops had executed civilians in Bukha, comparing the killings to what he claimed were chemical weapons attacks by the West in Syria aimed at incriminating its ally. Russian Bashar al-Assad. “It’s the same kind of fake in Bucha,” Putin said. It was unclear whether Putin meant the images of the dead civilians in Bucha were set up or that the civilians had been killed by Ukrainians, two conflicting versions that have been strongly promoted by Russian officials and the state media. Ukraine has accused the Russian military of executing civilians in Bukha, a city outside the capital, Kyiv, which Russian troops occupied for several weeks before leaving. Western countries are cooperating with Ukraine in a joint investigation to gather information on possible Russian war crimes. War map of Ukraine Mr Lukashenko described Mr Bukha’s atrocities as “a British special operation”, without elaborating. “If you need addresses, passwords, car numbers, car brands with which they arrived in Bucha and how they did it, the FSB [spy agency] of the Russian Federation may provide this information. “If not, we can help.” Putin also said that the sanctions imposed on his country would not have the desired effect, making an analogy between the situation in Russia today and that of the Soviet Union in 1961, when Gagarin became the first man in space. “The sanctions were complete, the isolation was complete, but the Soviet Union was still first in space,” Putin said. “The blitzkrieg on which our enemies relied did not work,” Putin said, referring to unprecedented Western sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during his visit to the Vostochny spaceport in the Far East of Russia. Photo: Evgeny Biyatov / Sputnik / AFP / Getty Images At times the Russian leader seemed to stutter or stutter, in stark contrast to the icy, confident demeanor he usually displays. A recurring theme in Putin’s statements on Tuesday was that war with Ukraine, which will soon enter its third month, was “inevitable.” “We were forced to do this. Ισε Ukraine began to become an anti-Russian stronghold. “They began to sprout nationalism and neo-Nazism. And a clash with these forces was inevitable for Russia,” Putin said. “They just chose time to attack; it was inevitable, it was just a matter of time.” He added that the invasion, which has so far cost tens of thousands of lives and driven more than 10 million Ukrainians from their homes, was “right”. Sam Green, a professor of Russian politics and director of the Russia Institute at King’s College London, said that since the beginning of the crisis, Putin had described Russia’s actions in Ukraine as an “existential threat.” “This whole war has been built around the rhetoric that Russia was under existential threat. That this war was imposed on Russia. “While the goals and objectives may change throughout this war, Putin simply cannot abandon this kind of existential rhetoric.” Green said that rhetoric seems to have prevailed in Russia, showing the genuine support that war seemed to have for sections of the population. “Putin wants to make sure there is no doubt why it is done and why all the pain and sacrifice is justified.”
