Putin says “disarmament agreement signed with U.S. suspended; attacks on Ukraine will continue

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia will continue its attacks on Ukraine, claiming that his country attacked Ukraine on the grounds that Western countries threatened Moscow.

Days before the first year of the war, which began with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin addressed the members of the Federal Assembly saying “The West is completely responsible for the increase in tensions in Ukraine.”

The US, on the other hand, called Putin’s claims ‘nonsense’.

Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security Adviser, said, “No one is attacking Russia. The idea that Russia is under military threat from Ukraine or any other country is nonsense.”

Strategic Offensive Weapons Reduction Agreement suspended

Russian President Putin said that Russia had suspended its participation in the New START agreement with the United States, which aims to rein in its intercontinental nuclear ballistic missile capabilities.

Putin said, “I signed a decree last week on the transition of new land-based strategic missile systems to combat-ready status.”

“It is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield”

Claiming that it was impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield, Putin said in his address to the nation, “The longer-range weapons are shipped to Ukraine, the further we will move the threat away from our borders.” He stated that they were going through a difficult and very important period for Russia at a time when significant changes were taking place all over the world.

“We are defending ourselves”

In his speech, Putin accused Western countries of threatening Russia saying “They are the ones who started the war. We are using force to end it. The West is aware that it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield, and therefore launched an aggressive disinformation attack by misinterpreting historical facts, attacking Russian culture, religion and values. We are defending people’s lives, our own house.”

Putin blamed Western countries for the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in an important part of his speech, “The elites of the West do not hide their goals: they want to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, that is, to finish us.”