Putin rages against the West in major speech on Ukraine war; here are the key highlights

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday delivered a major annual state address at the Federal Assembly, Russia’s two-chamber Parliament. He underscored one-year progress and a detailed assessment of the “special military operation” in Ukraine. Speaking to Russia's elites, Putin said that a year ago, he ordered a military intervention in Ukraine's eastern Donbass region "to protect our people on historical lands," referring to the ethnic Russian-speaking population in Ukraine's contentious territories. It is to be noted that Putin had earlier justified the offensive, citing the "nazism" threat in Kyiv and that his armed forces intended to "demilitarize" Russia's southern neighbour.

Ordered military operation to 'de-nazify' Ukraine

During his speech on Tuesday, Putin invoked the justification of the assaults on Ukrainian soil, saying that the operation was ordered to eliminate the neo-Nazi regime of the established [Zelenskyy] government across Ukraine. Putin stressed that a decision was made days ahead, and that "step by step we will carefully and consistently solve the tasks set before us." The Russian President further accused the West of pumping weapons and training the Ukrainian nationalist battalions, referring to Ukraine's battalions' far-right volunteers and the members or supporters of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) who have been leading combat operations in Kyiv. 

Since the inception of the war, Russians have accused the Ukrainian battalions such as the Azov regiment fighters of adherence to the ideology of whom they say 'Hitler’s henchmen' Stepan Bandera who survived in the German Nazi concentration camp during WWII. Described as the 'Banderites', some of the Ukrainian battalions find their roots in the mid-20th century insurgent movement, and were later incorporated into the Ukrainian National Guard. They turned into the pretext for Putin's “special military operation." Russia links the establishment of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as the 1st Galician of Ukraine with "neo-nazism." 

"Armed Forces of Ukraine was recently given the name 'Edelweiss' as a Nazi division that participated in the deportation of Jews, executions of prisoners of war, and punitive operations. SS chevrons are very popular in Ukraine. Wehrmacht marks are applied to the equipment," said Putin referring to the insignia specific to the Heer and senior Wehrmacht officers in Nazi Germany during WWII. 

'Putin says statements of Western leaders turned into a forgery and a lie

Speaking from the Duma's podium, Putin launched a scathing attack on the Western leaders, who backed Ukrainian nationalists with weapons and ammunition, saying that Russia "did everything possible to solve the problem in Ukraine by peaceful means. But the statements of Western leaders turned into a forgery and a lie." "[The] promises and statements of Western leaders turned into 'forgery and cruel lies'. Even before the start of the operation, negotiations were underway between Ukraine and the [NATO members] on the supply of air defense systems and aircraft," the Kremlin leader noted.

"We remember Kyiv's attempts to obtain nuclear weapons," he furthermore said. Putin spoke in context to when Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, pushed for the "need of pre-emptive strikes" against Russia, adding that NATO must cripply Russia so it is unable to deploy the nukes first. “We need pre-emptive strikes so that they’ll know what will happen to them if they use nukes, and not the other way around, Don’t wait for Russia’s nuclear strikes, and then say, ‘Oh, since you did this, take that from us!”, Zelenskyy had said during the nightly address. Putin derided Ukraine for "provocations" against Russia with the help of the United States and the NATO military alliance. 

"The United States deployed bases and biological laboratories near our borders mastered the theater of military operations and prepared Ukraine for a big war," noted the Russian President, referring to the analysis published by his Defense Ministry on the bioweapons research labs operated by the United States on the Ukrainian territories.

Kyiv committed 'genocide' in Donbass, behaves like US-NATO

Putin accused Ukraine's military of crimes against humanity and genocide in the eastern Donbass region, saying that it was "on fire and blood was shed, and Russia was sincerely striving for a peaceful solution." Putin then slammed the West, saying that it was "playing on people's lives, playing with 'marked cards.'" The Russian President accused Zelenskyy of "behaving the same way" as its ally the United States and NATO, who destroyed many countries—Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. "The concept of honour and decency is not for them," he said. 

The President of the Russian Federation stressed that Russia was "sincerely ready for a constructive dialogue" before launching a military operation. But that Kremlin received an "indistinct, hypocritical reaction." Putin accused NATO of "expanding to our borders" and that the Western military Alliance, via ties with Ukraine, found new places on the installation of new missile defenses "close to our borders." Russia received a refusal on all fundamental positions, said Putin, and then on Feb 24, "everything was ready for the next punitive action in the Donbass," noted Putin. 

'It is THEY who started the war; we used force to stop it'

Russia's President Putin, during his speech aired on Russian state television asserted that it was not Russia but Ukraine and its Western allies who started the war. "Kyiv's actions completely contradicted UN resolutions," lambasted Putin. "It was they [Ukraine, US, NATO] who started the war.  And we used force to stop it," said Putin, justifying the military operation. The Russian President also noted that had he not ordered the military operation, Ukrainians would, eventually, try to attack annexed Russian territories. "Kyiv's next goal was to strike at Crimea and Sevastopol bases. Now Kyiv is openly talking about it.  They revealed what we already knew so well," said Putin. 

West desires global hegemony; 'they spare no effort to do coups, unrest, military operation worldwide'

Putin during the state address accused the Western countries of asserting the global hegemony and destroying other nations. Stressing that Russia is "defending our home," Putin said that the goal of the West is "unlimited power on the world." "They [US and its allies] have already spent more than $150 billion on arming Kyiv and defeating Russia. They [US, NATO] "spare no expense to encourage unrest and coups around the world," said Putin. 

The Russian President commented on the Munich Security Conference, saying that Russia was blamed "so that everyone would forget what the West had done in recent decades." The United States has reduced entire regions of the world "to chaos," asserted Putin. As a result of the wars unleashed by the United States after 2001, more than 900 thousand people died, more than 38 million became refugees, Putin noted, adding that they are hurling "anti-Russia" propaganda via Ukraine. "This project goes back to the 19th century, Austria-Hungary, Poland nurtured it to tear off historical territories from our country," said Putin. 

"The West tried to collapse the Ruble, provoke inflation, steal reserves, break production chains. The goal of the West is to make our citizens suffer and destabilize society from within. The calculation was not justified," said Putin. 

Responsibility of escalation of war lies with West; their weapons supply

"The responsibility for the escalation of the conflict lies entirely with the Western elites and the Kyiv regime, for which the Ukrainian people are a stranger," said Putin. "The more long-range Western systems will come to Ukraine, the further we will be forced to move the threat away from our borders," he added. "Goal of the West is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, to end us once and for all. We will respond accordingly because we are talking about the existence of our country," he noted. 

Russia cannot be defeated on battlefield

Russia cannot be defeated on the battlefield, said Putin. "The West will try to undermine and split our society. They rely on national traitors who exude the poison of contempt for their Fatherland. It has always been so," he noted. He further hailed the annexed regions of Ukraine, saying, "special words to the residents of the DPR and LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. You yourself have determined your future, made a firm choice."