Putin’s war: his rage-filled justification for invading Ukraine

What is the basis for Vladimir Putin’s “recognition” of two Ukrainian provinces and his dispatch of “peacekeepers” to invade the country? Or: why is Russia invading Ukraine? He laid it out in an extensive and angry speech overnight before his formal “recognition” of the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk:

Ukraine is part of Russia

“Ukraine for us is not just a neighbouring country. It is an integral part of our own history, culture, spiritual space. These are our comrades, relatives, among whom are not only colleagues, friends, former colleagues, but also relatives, people connected with us by blood and relatives. For a long time, the inhabitants of the historical lands of the south-west of ancient Russia called themselves Russians and Orthodox. This was the case until the 17th century, when part of these territories were reunified with the Russian state, and after.”

Ukraine now ‘a colony with puppets at its helm’

“Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia, more precisely, Bolshevik, communist Russia … Even today it can with good reason be called ‘Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s Ukraine’. He is its author and architect. This is fully confirmed by archive documents … And now grateful descendants have demolished monuments to Lenin in Ukraine. This is what they call decommunisation. Do you want decommunisation? Well that suits us just fine. But it is unnecessary, as they say, to stop halfway. We are ready to show you what real decommunisation means for Ukraine … Ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood … Ukrainians squandered not only everything we gave them during the USSR, but even everything they inherited from the Russian empire. Even the work created by Catherine the Great.”

NATO is an aggressive alliance

“They try to convince us over and over again that NATO is a peace-loving and purely defensive alliance, saying that there are no threats to Russia. Again they propose that we take them at their word. But we know the real value of such words.”

Ukraine can never join NATO

“We know the position and words of the US leadership that active hostilities in eastern Ukraine do not exclude the possibility of this country joining NATO if it can meet the criteria of the North Atlantic alliance and defeat corruption … If Ukraine was to join NATO it would serve as a direct threat to the security of Russia … US strategic planning documents contain the possibility of a so-called pre-emptive strike against enemy missile systems. And who is the main enemy for the US and NATO? We know that too. It’s Russia. In NATO documents, our country is officially and directly declared the main threat to North Atlantic security. And Ukraine will serve as a forward springboard for the strike.”

The real goal of the West

“There is only one goal: to restrain the development of Russia. And they will do it, as they did before. Even without any formal pretext at all. Just because we exist, and we will never compromise our sovereignty, national interests and our values.”

Other claims

Russia claims Ukraine engaged in torturing people, including women and children, is guilty of genocide, is seeing neo-Nazism on the rise, is developing nuclear weapons, is planning to attack the Russian Orthodox church, and is preparing a military attack on Russia.