Putin to update Russia’s elite on Ukraine war in major speech

MOSCOW, Feb 21 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin will replace Russia’s political and navy elite on the state of what he calls his “particular navy operation” in Ukraine on Tuesday with many Russians desperate to know what his plans are for the 12 months forward.

Putin will set out his newest pondering in a speech to members of each homes of parliament and to navy commanders and troopers practically one 12 months after he despatched troops into Ukraine, a choice that triggered the most important confrontation with the West because the depths of the Chilly Conflict.

“At such an important and really sophisticated juncture in our growth, our lives, everyone seems to be ready for a message within the hope of listening to an evaluation of what’s taking place, an evaluation of the particular navy operation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instructed state tv.

Putin may even give his evaluation of the worldwide state of affairs and description his imaginative and prescient of Russia’s growth after the West imposed sweeping sanctions on it, the Kremlin mentioned.

The speech is because of start at 0900 GMT in central Moscow.

The Ukraine battle is by far the most important guess by a Kremlin chief since no less than the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union – and a raffle Western leaders equivalent to U.S. President Joe Biden say he should lose.

Russian forces have suffered three main battlefield reversals because the battle started however nonetheless management round one fifth of Ukraine.

Tens of 1000’s of males have been killed, and Putin, 70, now says Russia is locked in an existential battle with an smug West which he says needs to carve up Russia and steal its huge pure assets.

Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny accused Putin on Monday of destroying Russia’s future for the sake of his personal private ambitions.

“The true causes for this battle are the political and financial issues inside Russia, Putin’s need to carry on to energy at any value, and his obsession together with his personal historic legacy,” Navalny mentioned.

“He needs to go down in historical past as ‘the conqueror tsar’.”

With the West supporting Ukraine, China’s place has come beneath scrutiny in latest weeks.

China’s high diplomat, Wang Yi, is because of go to Moscow shortly, and should probably even meet Putin, as america says it’s involved Beijing could also be contemplating supplying weapons to Russia.

Chinese language weapons provides to Russia would threat a possible escalation of the Ukraine battle right into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one facet and Ukraine and the U.S.-led NATO navy alliance on the opposite.

Reporting by Man Faulconbridge;
Modifying by Andrew Osborn and Alison Williams

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