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AFP is publishing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech asserting Moscow’s army operation in Ukraine.
The speech has not been edited and seems verbatim as launched in English by the Kremlin.
Right here is the speech in full:
Residents of Russia, mates,
I contemplate it mandatory at present to converse once more in regards to the tragic occasions in Donbas and the key points of making certain the safety of Russia.
I will start with what I mentioned in my tackle on February 21, 2022. I spoke about our largest issues and worries, and in regards to the elementary threats which irresponsible Western politicians created for Russia constantly, rudely and unceremoniously from yr to yr. I am referring to the eastward growth of NATO, which is shifting its army infrastructure ever nearer to the Russian border.
It’s a incontrovertible fact that over the previous 30 years we now have been patiently attempting to come to an settlement with the main NATO nations concerning the ideas of equal and indivisible safety in Europe. In response to our proposals, we invariably confronted both cynical deception and lies or makes an attempt at strain and blackmail, whereas the North Atlantic alliance continued to develop regardless of our protests and issues. Its army machine is shifting and, as I mentioned, is approaching our very border.
Why is that this occurring? The place did this insolent method of speaking down from the top of their exceptionalism, infallibility and all-permissiveness come from? What’s the clarification for this contemptuous and disdainful angle to our pursuits and completely authentic calls for?
The reply is easy. All the pieces is evident and apparent. In the late Eighties, the Soviet Union grew weaker and subsequently broke aside. That have ought to function a good lesson for us, as a result of it has proven us that the paralysis of energy and will is the first step in the direction of full degradation and oblivion. We misplaced confidence for just one second, but it surely was sufficient to disrupt the stability of forces in the world.
As a end result, the outdated treaties and agreements are not efficient. Entreaties and requests don’t assist. Something that doesn’t go well with the dominant state, the powers that be, is denounced as archaic, out of date and ineffective. At the identical time, all the things it regards as helpful is offered as the final reality and pressured on others no matter the value, abusively and by any means obtainable. Those that refuse to comply are subjected to strong-arm ways.
What I am saying now doesn’t issues solely Russia, and Russia shouldn’t be the solely nation that’s fearful about this. This has to do with the total system of worldwide relations, and typically even US allies. The collapse of the Soviet Union led to a redivision of the world, and the norms of worldwide regulation that developed by that point — and the most essential of them, the elementary norms that have been adopted following WWII and largely formalised its end result — got here in the approach of those that declared themselves the winners of the Chilly Warfare.
Of course, follow, worldwide relations and the guidelines regulating them needed to have in mind the modifications that happened in the world and in the stability of forces.
Nevertheless, this could have been carried out professionally, easily, patiently, and with due regard and respect for the pursuits of all states and one’s personal duty. As a substitute, we noticed a state of euphoria created by the feeling of absolute superiority, a type of fashionable absolutism, coupled with the low cultural requirements and vanity of those that formulated and pushed by way of selections that suited solely themselves. The scenario took a completely different flip.
There are numerous examples of this. First a bloody army operation was waged towards Belgrade, with out the UN Safety Council’s sanction however with fight plane and missiles utilized in the coronary heart of Europe. The bombing of peaceable cities and very important infrastructure went on for a number of weeks. I need to recall these information, as a result of some Western colleagues want to neglect them, and once we talked about the occasion, they like to keep away from talking about worldwide regulation, as a substitute emphasising the circumstances which they interpret as they suppose mandatory.
Then got here the flip of Iraq, Libya and Syria. The unlawful use of army energy towards Libya and the distortion of all of the UN Safety Council selections on Libya ruined the state, created a enormous seat of worldwide terrorism, and pushed the nation in the direction of a humanitarian disaster, into the vortex of a civil battle, which has continued there for years. The tragedy, which was created for a whole lot of hundreds and even tens of millions of individuals not solely in Libya however in the complete area, has led to a large-scale exodus from the Center East and North Africa to Europe.
A comparable destiny was additionally ready for Syria. The fight operations carried out by the Western coalition in that nation with out the Syrian authorities’s approval or UN Safety Council’s sanction can solely be outlined as aggression and intervention.
However the instance that stands aside from the above occasions is, of course, the invasion of Iraq with none authorized grounds. They used the pretext of allegedly dependable data obtainable in the United States in regards to the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. To show that allegation, the US Secretary of State held up a vial with white energy, publicly, for the complete world to see, assuring the worldwide group that it was a chemical warfare agent created in Iraq. It later turned out that each one of that was a faux and a sham, and that Iraq didn’t have any chemical weapons. Unimaginable and stunning however true. We witnessed lies made at the highest state degree and voiced from the excessive UN rostrum. As a end result we see a large loss in human life, injury, destruction, and a colossal upsurge of terrorism.
Total, it seems that almost all over the place, in many areas of the world the place the United States introduced its regulation and order, this created bloody, non-healing wounds and the curse of worldwide terrorism and extremism. I have solely talked about the most evident however removed from solely examples of disregard for worldwide regulation.
This array consists of guarantees to not develop NATO eastwards even by an inch. To reiterate: they’ve deceived us, or, to put it merely, they’ve performed us. Positive, one typically hears that politics is a soiled enterprise. It could possibly be, but it surely shouldn’t be as soiled as it’s now, to not such an extent. One of these con-artist behaviour is opposite not solely to the ideas of worldwide relations but in addition and above all to the usually accepted norms of morality and ethics. The place is justice and reality right here? Simply lies and hypocrisy throughout.
By the way, US politicians, political scientists and journalists write and say {that a} veritable “empire of lies” has been created contained in the United States in current years. It’s exhausting to disagree with this — it’s actually so. However one shouldn’t be modest about it: the United States continues to be a nice nation and a system-forming energy. All its satellites not solely humbly and obediently say sure to and parrot it at the slightest pretext but in addition imitate its behaviour and enthusiastically settle for the guidelines it’s providing them. Subsequently, one can say with good cause and confidence that the complete so-called Western bloc shaped by the United States in its personal picture and likeness is, in its entirety, the exact same “empire of lies”.
As for our nation, after the disintegration of the USSR, given the total unprecedented openness of the new, fashionable Russia, its readiness to work truthfully with the United States and different Western companions, and its virtually unilateral disarmament, they instantly tried to put the closing squeeze on us, end us off, and totally destroy us. That is the way it was in the Nineteen Nineties and the early 2000s, when the so-called collective West was actively supporting separatism and gangs of mercenaries in southern Russia. What victims, what losses we needed to maintain and what trials we needed to undergo at that point earlier than we broke the again of worldwide terrorism in the Caucasus! We bear in mind this and will always remember.
Correctly talking, the makes an attempt to use us in their very own pursuits by no means ceased till fairly lately: they sought to destroy our conventional values and drive on us their false values that may erode us, our individuals from inside, the attitudes they’ve been aggressively imposing on their nations, attitudes which can be immediately resulting in degradation and degeneration, as a result of they’re opposite to human nature. This isn’t going to occur. Nobody has ever succeeded in doing this, nor will they succeed now.
Regardless of all that, in December 2021, we made one more try and attain settlement with the United States and its allies on the ideas of European safety and NATO’s non-expansion. Our efforts have been in useless. The United States has not modified its place. It doesn’t consider it essential to agree with Russia on a matter that’s essential for us. The United States is pursuing its personal aims, whereas neglecting our pursuits.
Of course, this example begs a query: what subsequent, what are we to count on? If historical past is any information, we all know that in 1940 and early 1941 the Soviet Union went to nice lengths to forestall battle or at least delay its outbreak. To this finish, the USSR sought to not provoke the potential aggressor till the very finish by refraining or suspending the most pressing and apparent preparations it needed to make to defend itself from an imminent assault. When it lastly acted, it was too late.
As a end result, the nation was not ready to counter the invasion by Nazi Germany, which attacked our motherland on June 22, 1941, with out declaring battle. The nation stopped the enemy and went on to defeat it, however this got here at a large value. The try and appease the aggressor forward of the Nice Patriotic Warfare proved to be a mistake which got here at a excessive value for our individuals. In the first months after the hostilities broke out, we misplaced huge territories of strategic significance, as properly as tens of millions of lives. We won’t make this error the second time. We’ve got no proper to achieve this.
Those that aspire to international dominance have publicly designated Russia as their enemy. They did so with impunity. Make no mistake, they’d no cause to act this manner. It’s true that they’ve appreciable monetary, scientific, technological, and army capabilities. We’re conscious of this and have an goal view of the financial threats we now have been listening to, simply as our means to counter this brash and unending blackmail. Let me reiterate that we now have no illusions in this regard and are extraordinarily reasonable in our assessments.
As for army affairs, even after the dissolution of the USSR and dropping a appreciable a part of its capabilities, at present’s Russia stays certainly one of the strongest nuclear states. Furthermore, it has a sure benefit in a number of cutting-edge weapons. In this context, there needs to be little doubt for anybody that any potential aggressor will face defeat and ominous penalties ought to it immediately assault our nation.
At the identical time, expertise, together with in the defence sector, is altering quickly. At some point there may be one chief, and tomorrow one other, however a army presence in territories bordering on Russia, if we allow it to go forward, will keep for a long time to come or possibly ceaselessly, creating an ever mounting and completely unacceptable menace for Russia.
Even now, with NATO’s eastward growth the scenario for Russia has been changing into worse and extra harmful by the yr. Furthermore, these previous days NATO management has been blunt in its statements that they should speed up and step up efforts to convey the alliance’s infrastructure nearer to Russia’s borders. In different phrases, they’ve been toughening their place. We can not keep idle and passively observe these developments. This may be an completely irresponsible factor to do for us.
Any additional growth of the North Atlantic alliance’s infrastructure or the ongoing efforts to acquire a army foothold of the Ukrainian territory are unacceptable for us. Of course, the query shouldn’t be about NATO itself. It merely serves as a instrument of US overseas coverage. The downside is that in territories adjoining to Russia, which I need to observe is our historic land, a hostile “anti-Russia” is taking form. Totally managed from the outdoors, it’s doing all the things to entice NATO armed forces and receive cutting-edge weapons.
For the United States and its allies, it’s a coverage of containing Russia, with apparent geopolitical dividends. For our nation, it’s a matter of life and loss of life, a matter of our historic future as a nation. This isn’t an exaggeration; it is a truth. It’s not solely a very actual menace to our pursuits however to the very existence of our state and to its sovereignty. It’s the purple line which we now have spoken about on quite a few events. They’ve crossed it.
This brings me to the scenario in Donbas. We will see that the forces that staged the coup in Ukraine in 2014 have seized energy, are retaining it with the assist of decorative election procedures and have deserted the path of a peaceable battle settlement. For eight years, for eight infinite years we now have been doing all the things attainable to settle the scenario by peaceable political means. All the pieces was in useless.
As I mentioned in my earlier tackle, you can’t look with out compassion at what is occurring there. It grew to become not possible to tolerate it. We needed to cease that atrocity, that genocide of the tens of millions of individuals who dwell there and who pinned their hopes on Russia, on all of us. It’s their aspirations, the emotions and ache of these those that have been the important motivating drive behind our choice to recognise the independence of the Donbas individuals’s republics.
I wish to moreover emphasise the following. Centered on their very own objectives, the main NATO nations are supporting the far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis in Ukraine, those that won’t ever forgive the individuals of Crimea and Sevastopol for freely making a option to reunite with Russia.
They may undoubtedly attempt to convey battle to Crimea simply as they’ve carried out in Donbas, to kill harmless individuals simply as members of the punitive items of Ukrainian nationalists and Hitler’s accomplices did through the Nice Patriotic Warfare. They’ve additionally brazenly laid declare to a number of different Russian areas.
If we take a look at the sequence of occasions and the incoming studies, the showdown between Russia and these forces can’t be prevented. It is just a matter of time. They’re preparing and ready for the proper second. Furthermore, they went as far as aspire to purchase nuclear weapons. We won’t let this occur.
I have already mentioned that Russia accepted the new geopolitical actuality after the dissolution of the USSR. We’ve got been treating all new post-Soviet states with respect and will proceed to act this manner. We respect and will respect their sovereignty, as confirmed by the help we supplied to Kazakhstan when it confronted tragic occasions and a problem in phrases of its statehood and integrity. Nevertheless, Russia can not really feel secure, develop, and exist whereas dealing with a everlasting menace from the territory of at present’s Ukraine.
Let me remind you that in 2000–2005 we used our army to push again towards terrorists in the Caucasus and stood up for the integrity of our state. We preserved Russia. In 2014, we supported the individuals of Crimea and Sevastopol. In 2015, we used our armed forces to create a dependable defend that prevented terrorists from Syria from penetrating Russia. This was a matter of defending ourselves. We had no different alternative.
The identical is occurring at present. They didn’t go away us another choice for defending Russia and our individuals, apart from the one we’re pressured to use at present. In these circumstances, we now have to take daring and instant motion. The individuals’s republics of Donbas have requested Russia for assist.
In this context, in accordance with Article 51 (Chapter VII) of the UN Constitution, with permission of Russia’s Federation Council, and in execution of the treaties of friendship and mutual help with the Donetsk Folks’s Republic and the Lugansk Folks’s Republic, ratified by the Federal Meeting on February 22, I made a choice to perform a particular army operation.
The objective of this operation is to shield individuals who, for eight years now, have been dealing with humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kyiv regime.
To this finish, we’ll search to demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine, as properly as convey to trial those that perpetrated quite a few bloody crimes towards civilians, together with towards residents of the Russian Federation.
It’s not our plan to occupy the Ukrainian territory. We don’t intend to impose something on anybody by drive. At the identical time, we now have been listening to an rising variety of statements coming from the West that there isn’t a want any extra to abide by the paperwork setting forth the outcomes of World Warfare II, as signed by the totalitarian Soviet regime. How can we reply to that?
The outcomes of World Warfare II and the sacrifices our individuals needed to make to defeat Nazism are sacred. This doesn’t contradict the excessive values of human rights and freedoms in the actuality that emerged over the post-war a long time. This doesn’t imply that nations can not benefit from the proper to self-determination, which is enshrined in Article 1 of the UN Constitution.
Let me remind you that the individuals residing in territories that are a part of at present’s Ukraine weren’t requested how they need to construct their lives when the USSR was created or after World Warfare II. Freedom guides our coverage, the freedom to select independently our future and the way forward for our youngsters. We consider that each one the peoples residing in at present’s Ukraine, anybody who need to do that, should have the ability to take pleasure in this proper to make a free alternative.
In this context I wish to tackle the residents of Ukraine. In 2014, Russia was obliged to shield the individuals of Crimea and Sevastopol from those that you your self name “nats”. The individuals of Crimea and Sevastopol made their alternative in favour of being with their historic homeland, Russia, and we supported their alternative. As I mentioned, we couldn’t act in any other case.
The present occasions don’t have anything to do with a need to infringe on the pursuits of Ukraine and the Ukrainian individuals. They’re linked with defending Russia from those that have taken Ukraine hostage and are attempting to use it towards our nation and our individuals.
I reiterate: We’re appearing to defend ourselves from the threats created for us and from a worse peril than what is occurring now. I am asking you, nonetheless exhausting this can be, to perceive this and to work along with us in order to flip this tragic web page as quickly as attainable and to transfer ahead collectively, with out permitting anybody to intrude in our affairs and our relationships however growing them independently, in order to create beneficial situations for overcoming all these issues and to strengthen us from inside as a single complete, regardless of the existence of state borders. I consider in this, in our frequent future.
I would additionally prefer to tackle the army personnel of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Comrade officers,
Your fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers didn’t struggle the Nazi occupiers and didn’t defend our frequent motherland to enable at present’s neo-Nazis to seize energy in Ukraine. You swore the oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian individuals and to not the junta, the individuals’s adversary which is plundering Ukraine and humiliating the Ukrainian individuals.
I urge you to refuse to perform their prison orders. I urge you to instantly lay down arms and go house. I will clarify what this implies: the army personnel of the Ukrainian military who do that will have the ability to freely go away the zone of hostilities and return to their households.
I need to emphasise once more that each one duty for the attainable bloodshed will lie absolutely and wholly with the ruling Ukrainian regime.
I would now prefer to say one thing crucial for those that could also be tempted to intrude in these developments from the outdoors. Irrespective of who tries to stand in our approach or all of the extra so create threats for our nation and our individuals, they have to know that Russia will reply instantly, and the penalties will likely be reminiscent of you could have by no means seen in your total historical past. Irrespective of how the occasions unfold, we’re prepared. All of the mandatory selections in this regard have been taken. I hope that my phrases will likely be heard.
Residents of Russia,
The tradition and values, expertise and traditions of our ancestors invariably supplied a highly effective underpinning for the wellbeing and the very existence of total states and nations, their success and viability. Of course, this immediately depends upon the means to rapidly adapt to fixed change, preserve social cohesion, and readiness to consolidate and summon all of the obtainable forces in order to transfer ahead.
We all the time have to be sturdy, however this power can tackle completely different kinds. The “empire of lies”, which I talked about in the starting of my speech, proceeds in its coverage primarily from tough, direct drive. That is when our saying on being “all brawn and no brains” applies.
Everyone knows that having justice and reality on our aspect is what makes us actually sturdy. If that is the case, it might be exhausting to disagree with the incontrovertible fact that it’s our power and our readiness to struggle which can be the bedrock of independence and sovereignty and present the mandatory basis for constructing a dependable future for your property, your loved ones, and your motherland.
Pricey compatriots,
I am sure that devoted troopers and officers of Russia’s armed forces will carry out their responsibility with professionalism and braveness. I have little doubt that the authorities establishments at all ranges and specialists will work successfully to assure the stability of our economic system, monetary system and social wellbeing, and the identical applies to company executives and the total enterprise group. I hope that each one parliamentary events and civil society take a consolidated, patriotic place.
At the finish of the day, the way forward for Russia is in the palms of its multi-ethnic individuals, as has all the time been the case in our historical past. Because of this the selections that I made will likely be executed, that we are going to obtain the objectives we now have set, and reliably assure the safety of our motherland.
I consider in your help and the invincible drive rooted in the love for our fatherland.
burs-jv/ah
© Agence France-Presse
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