President Putin declares that the West cannot crush Russia
(Baonghean.vn) - Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of trying to "crush" Russia and asserted that these efforts are doomed to fail. He also praised Russian arms manufacturers for significantly increasing production in recent months.
After the state award ceremony at the Kremlin, President Putin said the West was trying to “sweep Russia aside to weaken it. And ultimately crush it.” “They will not succeed. Never,” the Russian head of state stressed.
He went on to cite the admissions of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande, who revealed last year that the Minsk agreements, a peace roadmap brokered between Kiev and Moscow in 2015, were a ploy to “give Ukraine more time” to build up its military. According to President Putin, Russia was ready to abide by the protocols and “not get involved [in Ukraine] at first.”
The Russian president also claimed that Ukraine, unlike Russia, "has no future" because Kiev is completely dependent on foreign funding and military supplies.
Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview with AFP, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed out that the Kremlin’s goals of “demilitarization” and “de-Nazification” of Ukraine remain unchanged. Asked about the prospects of a peace deal between the two neighbors, Zakharova said it was “necessary to confirm Ukraine’s neutral, non-aligned and non-nuclear status” as well as “recognize the new territorial realities and ensure the rights of Russian-speaking citizens and ethnic minorities living in the country.”
The spokesman also stressed that Moscow has never ruled out the possibility of a diplomatic solution, and affirmed that Ukraine and Western countries now have the responsibility to promote this process./.
