Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated Victory Day on Monday with a speech celebrating the 1945 Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. Putin linked his war in Ukraine with the World War two struggle claiming that Russians fighting in Ukraine are defending their motherland.
Ukrainians and Westerners accuse Putin of exploiting the World War 2 anniversary by linking what is happening in Ukraine with war crimes which happened during the fierce battle against the Nazi’s. On 24 February Vladimir Putin ordered a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Russian troops invaded the Ukraine and fierce battles emerged displacing over 4 million people and killing thousands. Putin accused Nato’s expansion of the invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine applied to be part of NATO and that did not sit well with the Russian President. Following the invasion, Western countries hit Russia with sanctions and began supplying the Ukrainian army with weapons to fight with the Russian troops.
Russia failed in its objective to take control of Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv and changed its focus and moved to the Est of Ukraine. There were speculations on what Putin would do leading to the Victory Day. Russia has suffered many casualties and Putin claimed that the soldiers died for a good cause.
Putin blamed the west for the conflict, telling the parade that Russia faced an “absolutely unacceptable threat” and warned against the “horror of a global war”.
“You are fighting for the motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of the Second World War,” Putin Said.
Source: Eyewitness News, NBC News, Aljazeera