Putin Said At A Mass Rally That Russia Will Win In Ukraine

LONDON, March 18 – Russian President Vladimir Putin used a rally in front of a packed football stadium on Friday to justify an invasion of Ukraine by promising tens of thousands of people waving Russian flags that all the Kremlin’s goals would be achieved.

“We know what we need to do, how to do it and at what cost. And we will definitely fulfill all our plans,” Putin said at a rally in Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium.

He said the soldiers involved in what Russia calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine demonstrated Russian unity.

“Shoulder to shoulder, they help each other, support each other, and when necessary, cover each other from bullets with their bodies, like brothers. We haven’t had such unity for a long time,” he said.

As Putin spoke, state television briefly interrupted his speech and showed previously recorded footage of patriotic songs, but the Kremlin chief later reappeared on state television.

The RIA news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that a technical malfunction on the server caused state television to suddenly disconnect from Putin.

Putin says the operation in Ukraine was necessary because the United States was using the country to threaten Russia, and Russia needed to defend itself against Ukraine’s “genocide” of the Russian-speaking population.

Ukraine says it is fighting for its existence and that Putin’s claims of genocide are nonsense. The West says claims that it wants to tear Russia apart are a fabrication.

The stage on which Putin spoke was decorated with the slogans “For a world without Nazism” and “For our President” using the “Z” markings used during the military operation in Ukraine.

Before Putin spoke, the stands of the 2018 FIFA World Cup stadium blared Russia’s thrilling national anthem with the words “Russia is our sacred state” along with more modern pop hits such as “Made in the USSR.”

Pan-Slavist verses by Fyodor Tyutchev were read, whose verses warned Russians that Europeans would always regard them as slaves of the Enlightenment.

Reuters report

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