Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday told his country’s traditional Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square that the West’s “untamed ambitions, arrogance and impunity” are driving “a real war” against Russia, while the Kremlin’s forces fired another cruise missile barrage at Ukraine.
“Today civilization is once again at a decisive turning point,” Putin said at the annual commemorations celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. “A real war has been unleashed against our Motherland.”
Putin’s remarks came just hours after the Kremlin’s forces fired its latest barrage of cruise missiles at Ukraine, which Russia invaded more than 14 months ago in what it officially refers to as a “special military operation.”
Ukrainian authorities said air defenses destroyed 23 of the 25 missiles that were launched. The air force said in a Telegram post that eight Kalibr cruise missiles were fired from carriers in the Black Sea toward the east and 17 from strategic aircraft.
Putin has repeatedly framed the war in Ukraine as a proxy conflict with the West. The Kremlin’s official narrative of the war depicts an existential battle with the West, which in Moscow’s view is merely using Ukraine as a tool to destroy Russia, re-write its history and crush its traditional values. That version of events has dominated Russian state media coverage of the war.
Putin praised soldiers taking part in the war in Ukraine and urged Russians to stand together.
“Our heroic ancestors proved that there is nothing stronger, more powerful and more reliable than our unity. There is nothing in the world stronger than our love for the motherland,” Putin said.
He blasted “Western globalist elites” that “harp about their exclusivity, pit people against each other, divide society and provoke bloody conflicts and coups, sow hatred, Russophobia.”
But there were signs the Ukraine war is taking a toll on Russia. Military analysts say the Russian military has struggled with ammunition supplies, troop morale and poor leadership and organization. The conflict…
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