Putin stated that he had “no doubt” that Russia will prevail in Ukraine.
During a televised visit to a weapons factory in his hometown of St. Petersburg, the Russian president assured workers and media, “Victory is assured, I have no doubt.”
He also asserted that Moscow’s intervention was meant to end the ‘conflict’ that has been raging in eastern Ukraine for years, when Russian-backed separatists seized control of the region.
He asserted that Russia has long attempted to negotiate an end to the crisis in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas, where separatists supported by Moscow have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Putin authorized the invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and has been involved in a lengthy struggle ever since. Since expelling Russian soldiers from Kiev a year ago, Ukraine has handed Putin’s generals a series of humiliating losses.
Since 2014, he claimed, large-scale military operations employing heavy weapons, artillery, tanks, and planes have been ongoing in Donbas.
As part of the special military operation, all we are doing today is an attempt to end the war. This is the purpose of our operation: defending the inhabitants of these lands.
Vladimir Putin stated that he has “no doubt” about Russia’s success in Ukraine. Pictured: Putin attends ceremonies Wednesday commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of the Nazi siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in the city.
Putin has defended his decision to send troops into Ukraine on February 24 by citing the need to protect Russian speakers and conduct ‘demilitarization’ and ‘denazification’ of the country to prevent it from posing a threat to Russia. Ukraine and its Western allies have rejected these claims as a pretext for an unprovoked act of aggression.
Putin also held a meeting with veterans on his visit to St. Petersburg to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of the city from Nazi occupation on January 18, 1943.
The approximately 900-day siege of the city formerly known as Leningrad, which lasted until January 1944, was one of the bloodiest chapters of World War II.
Approximately one million people perished in Leningrad due to famine during the siege.
Putin lay a wreath at the Piskaryov memorial cemetery in the city on Wednesday, where 420,000 civilian victims of the siege and 70,000 Soviet soldiers are interred.
He also placed flowers on the section of the mass grave where his brother, who died as a child during the siege, was interred.