By Jack Phillips of The Epoch Times
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said that Russia would triumph in its conflict with Ukraine, delivering his first remarks in several days about the weekslong war.
“That Blitzkrieg on which our foes were counting on did not work,” Putin claimed of the West’s crippling sanctions imposed after Putin’s Feb. 24 order to invade the country, according to state-run media outlet TASS. Putin made those comments alongside Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally, at Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur region.
Russia’s economy is on track to contract by more than 10 percent in 2022, the biggest fall in gross domestic product since the years following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin said on Tuesday, reported Reuters. Russia is facing soaring inflation and capital flight while grappling with a possible debt default following the sanctions.
Putin, who had been ubiquitous on Russian television in the early days of the war, had largely retreated from public view since Russia’s withdrawal from northern Ukraine this month.
The Russian leader, despite setbacks, claimed that the operation in Ukraine is going according to plan, saying that a collision with Ukraine was inevitable due to nationalist factions operating within the country.
“We will not stop military operations in Ukraine until they succeed,” Putin said, adding that Ukraine has “deviated” from agreements that were made during previous rounds of talks, according to state-run RIA Novosti.
The goals of the conflict are “absolutely clear and noble,” Putin also said, state media reported. “There is no doubt that the goals will be achieved.”
“The main goal is to help the people of Donbass [region in eastern Ukraine], whose independence we recognized. We were forced to do so because the Kyiv authorities, pressed by the West, refused to comply with the Minsk agreements aimed at a peaceful solution of the Donbass-related problems,” Putin continued.
Also Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said they are checking reports of possible chemical weapons usage in Mariupol and other areas. They also urged civilians to flee eastern areas ahead of the anticipated offensive, while the battle for the southern port city of Mariupol was reaching a decisive phase, with Ukrainian marines holed up in the Azovstal industrial district.
“There is a theory that these could be phosphorous munitions,” Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said in public remarks.
It came hours President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday night that Russia could resort to chemical weapons as it massed troops in Donbass for a new assault. He did not say if they actually had been used. The United States and Britain said they were trying to verify the reports.
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Vladimir Putin – leader of the sane world.
Vlad looks tired.
tired contempt, yes
it is rumored he has thyroid cancer.
I just watched PBS Frontline: Putin’s Road to War. This was the most horrific pack of blatant, outrageous, deranged lies that I have ever seen in my entire life. It was 100x worse than anyone could ever imagine, even knowing that it was coming from the monsters at PBS. It was so incredibly awful that I honestly cannot find words to describe it.
It shamelessly repeated long debunked lies, like the one that Russia stole the 2016 election for Trump. It quoted long exposed, disgraced liars like James Clapper and Victoria Nuland. It somehow tried to make the bizarre connection that Putin was responsible for January 6th and the debacle in Afghanistan. It even stooped to the silly tactic of using darkly shaded, ominous looking pictures of Putin so he looked like a Frankenstein monster. Childish.
The people who produced this ridiculous, blatant propaganda know they are lying. It is too outrageous for even a small child to believe. So why was it done? Who are they trying to convince? What is their point? What is their endgame?
It seems clear that they are using the poor dupes of Ukraine as cannon fodder to achieve their goal of destroying Putin and Russia. They will stop at nothing. They will do or say absolutely anything to achieve their goals.
What does Putin have on them? It must be BIG.
I think they are in for a very rude awakening. This guy Putin – He is not Saddam Hussein, or Moammar Gaddafi, or Jeffrey Epstein, or Donald Trump. He is hard as nails and wise to their nefarious tactics. He will win or die trying and if he loses, he will bring his opponents down with him. I think the Elites have met their match. This will not end well.
>So why was it done?
So the makers would earn their two-weeks salary. And après moi, le déluge.
Tells you much more about US society [than about Russia], seeing that -with a few rare exceptions- nobody even cares about those most blatant lies anym0re.
I noticed that if you search for “Ukraine” on Duck Duck Go, and select the ‘news’ search option, all you get is propaganda.
I also noticed that if you scroll all the way to the bottom, there is a set of faces on the right lower corner of the page – happy/sad – for feedback. If you click the sad face, one of the options is “I don’t trust these news sources.”
Somebody should tell /Pol/.
DuckDuckGone simply uses Google to obtain search results.
“former finance minister Alexei Kudrin said on Tuesday, reported Reuters.”
Whew – it wasn’t easy to find someone who says something negative on the Russian economy, but we did it!
Clearly, this ENTIRE article is pootin’s fault. Just doing his part as co-captain of the Global Synchronized Swimming Team.
I can’t tell if it’s fake or real. Time will tell.