Almost a year following the start of the military campaign in Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin will deliver his first address on the state of the nation on Tuesday.
The intervention, which is expected to last for an hour, will be marked by the historic and surprise visit to Ukraine that US President Joe Biden made this Monday.
In a dialectical duel, at the same time that Putin speaks to his parliamentarians, Biden will give a speech in the Polish parliament. Putin has not addressed both houses of the Russian parliament since April 2021.
acts canceled
This Monday it was learned that Putin canceled his public events to prepare his address. He also held consultations with members of the government in order to “compare notes.” “Of course, at such a serious and complicated stage of our development, everyone is waiting for the message in the hope of hearing an assessment of what is happening,” Dmitri Peskov, the presidential spokesman, told television.
Vladimir Putin will give his reading on the progress of the military campaign, the tense international situation, the results of government management and future plans.
Until this Monday there was a great secret regarding the content of the message, although it was expected that it would mainly focus on the military intervention and the annexation last September of four Ukrainian regions: Donetsk, Lugansk, Jergon and Zaporizhia.
“Now our whole life revolves around the theme of the special military operation,” Peskov stressed. In addition, Putin is expected to comment on Biden’s presence this Monday in kyiv and on Tuesday in Warsaw. Because the Kremlin affirms that in the Ukraine it is also fighting once morest NATO.
Biden’s arrival took the Kremlin by surprise, to which the White House communicated its plans shortly before the president’s arrival in Europe to avoid unexpected incidents.
“A year ago, when Putin launched his invasion, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he would outdo us, but he was wrong,” Biden said.
more ammunition
In addition, he announced another half a billion dollars in artillery ammunition, howitzers and Javelin missiles, a man-portable weapon designed to destroy tanks and other heavy vehicles.
Biden also announced that this week he will impose new sanctions to hit those Russian elites and companies that are helping the Kremlin dodge sanctions.
Zelenski, for his part, assured that the United States is considering supplying Ukraine with a type of long-range missiles that have not been sent to kyiv so far.
Ukraine had already asked the United States to supply ATACMS missiles, which can hit targets almost 300 kilometers away and might even reach the annexed Crimean peninsula.
The main message was that the US and Europe are ready to continue supporting Kiev militarily and to increase the pressure on Moscow to give up its imperialist ambitions in the neighboring country.
Washington also sent a warning to China, the Kremlin’s main ally, so that it does not think of supplying lethal weapons to Russia, on the eve of the arrival in Moscow of the head of diplomacy of the Asian giant, Wang Yi.
One year following the start of hostilities, Putin cannot present to the Federal Assembly great victories or great territorial gains, apart from those achieved in the first months of fighting.
