Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday defended Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, and blamed Kyiv and the West, as he looked to use grand Victory Day celebrations to mobilize patriotic support for the campaign.
Speaking at the start of the annual military parade in Red Square marking the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, Putin said Russian troops in Ukraine were defending their homeland and portrayed the conflict as a continuation of World War II.
Addressing Russian forces on the front in Ukraine, he said: “You are fighting for the Motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of the Second World War.”
Photo: Reuters
Putin has repeatedly tried to connect the fighting in Ukraine to what Russians call the Great Patriotic War by describing authorities in Kyiv as neo-Nazis.
He made no major announcements during the speech, despite reports he could use the anniversary to announce an escalation of the conflict or a general mobilization in Russia.
Instead Putin put forward a defiant defense of what Russia calls its “special military operation,” saying Kyiv and its Western allies had been preparing “an invasion of our historical lands,” including in the Russian-speaking Donbas region and in Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Photo: AFP
“An absolutely unacceptable threat to us was being created, directly on our borders,” Putin said, pointing to NATO weapons deliveries to Ukraine and the deployment of foreign advisers.
Russia had no choice, but to undertake a pre-emptive response, he said, calling it “the only right decision” for a “sovereign, strong and independent country.”
He insisted that Russia was not looking to expand the conflict, saying it was important “to do everything so that the horror of a global war does not happen again.”
Rejecting Putin’s attempt to justify Russia’s invasion as an effort to defend the homeland, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said: “NATO countries were not going to attack Russia. Ukraine did not plan to attack Crimea.”
“The Russian military is dying, not defending their country, but trying to occupy another,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
About 11,000 troops marched on Red Square for the 77th anniversary, along with more than 130 military vehicles, including tanks and intercontinental ballistic missile launchers.
Planned flypasts by Russian military aircraft in Moscow and other cities were canceled due to bad weather.
In related news, Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergei Andreev was yesterday splattered with a red substance by pro-Ukraine campaigners in Warsaw when he tried to lay a wreath to mark Victory Day.
Chanting “fascists” and brandishing the national flag, pro-Ukraine campaigners blocked the ambassador’s way as he walked toward the mausoleum, preventing him from laying his wreath, an Agence France-Presse photographer at the scene said.
Several people then threw a red substance on his face and clothes, and also splattered some of the men in his entourage.
After wiping his face with his hand, Andreev said “I am proud of my country and my president.”
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
DANGEROUS DRIVERS: The proposal follows a fatal incident on Monday involving a 78-year-old driver, which killed three people and injured 12 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said it would lower the age for elderly drivers to renew their license from 75 to 70 as part of efforts to address safety issues caused by senior motorists. The new policy was proposed in light of a deadly incident on Monday in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽), in which a 78-year-old motorist surnamed Yu (余) sped through a school zone, killing three people and injuring 12. Last night, another driver sped down a street in Tainan’s Yuching District (玉井), killing one pedestrian and injuring two. The incidents have sparked public discussion over whether seniors
RSS