Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky both delivered New Year’s Eve addresses to their countries, where they vowed to continue fighting as the war shows no sign of slowing down in 2023.
In his speech, Putin reiterated that he has no intention of leaving the areas Russian forces have captured and annexed, saying Russia is fighting to protect people “in the new regions of the Russian Federation.”
Putin took aim at the US and its European allies, saying the West “lied to us about peace while preparing for aggression,” likely referring to recent comments from former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She said in December that the Minsk accords that were brokered by France and Germany and meant to end the Donbas war were really an effort to “give Ukraine time” to build up its military.
“Today, they no longer hesitate to openly admit it and to cynically use Ukraine and its people as a means to weaken and divide Russia. We have never allowed anyone to do this, and we will not allow it now,” Putin said.
The Russian leader concluded his speech by vowing that Russia would continue the fight. “We will only move forward, to fight for our families and for Russia, for the future of our only, beloved Motherland,” he said.
Zelensky said in his address that the previous 10 months of fighting has shown the world Ukraine doesn’t need to make compromises and hinted that he would never agree to Russian demands of neutrality. “This is the year when Ukraine changed the world. And the world discovered Ukraine. We were told to surrender. We chose a counterattack! We were told to make concessions and compromises. We are joining the European Union and NATO,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian leader said that he wished for victory, which according to Ukrainian officials, means kicking Russia out of the territory it has captured, including Crimea. While Ukraine did retake Kharkiv and Kherson city, territory has not changed hands much since then.
Fighting has been raging in eastern Ukraine, and the Russian Defense Ministry has been reporting heavy Ukrainian casualties, although the numbers are not confirmed. Russia has reinforced its positions in the east since ordering the mobilization of 300,000 fresh troops, but it’s not yet clear if they plan on launching a major offensive.
While the battle lines haven’t changed much, the situation for civilians across Ukraine is a dire one as Russia has been pounding Ukrainian energy infrastructure, leaving millions without power and heat for the winter. Russian missiles and drones continued to hit targets across the country on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
There just seem to be so many ways for this situation to get much worse…A lot depends on Russia and a lot depends on NATO.
I fear for humanity and civilization when the US realizes it can’t win. I keep seeing the last scene in Planet of the Apes” You bastards,you blew it all up”.
Pardon the pun: A blast from the past…
You should fear for Putin when he realizes he cannot win.
If this war goes nuclear, it will be because Desperate Putin, the guy you support, fires the fist One.
But you and your pro putin team here will blame it on the West as usual.
It has been clear for a long time that Ukraine and its sponsors treated Minsk II as an opportunity to build strength for further fighting. Merkel’s and Hollande’s recent admissions are nonetheless extraordinary.
Then-leaders of the principal mediator and guarantor nations, have announced publicly that the agreement — which was unanimously adopted by the United Nations Security Council — was intended to provide time for the Kiev regime to build and strengthen its forces for battling the breakaway republics. That’s a remarkable confession, the “quiet part” spoken out loud.
Whatever Merkel’s and Hollande’s reasons for telling the world the (evident) truth, making it public now is fanning the flames of the ongoing war. The news and social media coverage from Russia (at least most that is readily available in English) is full of fury and outrage. And Putin’s New Year speech references are clearly intended to feed that fury. He wants Russians to be mad as hell.
This is going to be used as evidence in support of the “Empire of Lies” characterization of the US and its European minions for a long time.
“It has been clear for a long time that Ukraine and its sponsors treated Minsk II as an opportunity to build strength for further fighting.”
That’s usually the way things go.
And yet they don’t seem to have been in any hurry for “further fighting.”
“14,000 killed in the Donbas between 2014-2021” is an oft-cited figure here.
Less oft-cited is how many were killed when. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, there were fewer than 400 civilian deaths between 2016 and 2021, and only 25 in 2021.
If we’re looking at actions as pretexts, it’s reasonable to surmise that Putin’s decision to invade was intended to prevent peace from breaking out.
So? Whether Kiev was or wasn’t in a hurry is irrelevant to the subject here, which is the admission of lying and deception on the part of the West. That said, it wouldn’t be surprising if Kiev were in no hurry. Its forces had just been thoroughly routed in Debaltsevo, by the LPR-DPR militias. And building the extensive fortifications Ukraine constructed in, e.g., Artemivsk (Bakhmut) takes time.
🙄 That would only be reasonable as the surmise of a seriously reason-challenged analyst. Regardless, in the case of Minsk II, there’s no need to surmise, because we have three public confessions (Poroshenko, Merkel, Hollande) that it was undertaken as a pretext by one side.
You’re overlooking the the 40k troops massed on the border with Donbas, the 22 bio-chem weapons labs, the heightening race laws and Ukro -nazi consolidation of power in gov’t, nat’l sec, and military. And backgrounding this Putin’s express sense of guilt and responsibility for paisanos left out in the cold by “the disaster”.
I’m not “overlooking the 40k troops massed on the border with Donbas.” They may or may not have existed.
Every country has weapons labs, the “race laws” had been there for quite some time, and the “Ukro-nazi consolidation of power” thus far seems to have been at about the same level it had been at since 2014.
As for Putin’s “express sense of guilt and responsibility,” he’s precisely as believable on such things as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Volodomyr Zelenskyy, et. al.
You’re clearly presenting with the Demon-Putin Syndrome –fabulously enriched himself and cronies, poisoned Navalny, the Skripals, killed the dogs in Sochi, elected DJT … using energy as weapon, bombing baby hospital, Bucha massacre, order to rape all the women, and “an unprovoked and illegal invasion”.
You’re clearly presenting with the Make-Up-Sh*t-About-Tom-Knapp-and-Hope-Someone-Buys-It Syndrome.
Let’s look at the facts:
* Yes, so far as I can tell, Putin has fabulously enriched himself and his cronies, just like most successful politicians do to the best of their ability.
* I’ve never, to the best of my recollection, expressed any opinion whatsoever on the question of whether he poisoned Navalny.
* I’ve never, to the best of my recollection, expressed any opinion whatsoever on the question of whether he poisoned the Skripals.
* I’ve publicly and repeatedly called the whole Russiagate scam bullsh*t.
* Every regime with control of significant energy resources uses that control and those resources as a weapon when it’s engaged in a conflict.
* I’ve never, to the best of my recollection, expressed any opinion whatsoever on the question of whether he bombed a baby hospital.
* I’ve never, to the best of my recollection, expressed any opinion whatsoever on who was responsible for the Bucha massacre.
* I’ve specifically publicly discounted the notion that he’s ordered any kinds of war crimes (those tend to happen without, and often in spite of, orders), including rape.
* I’ve never called the invasion “unprovoked” or “illegal.”
OK, you avoided the literal formula. Still, your contention that he invaded to prevent peace amounts to the same.
But anyway in retrospect I agree with you he was too tardy with his invasion. The butter had clarified at Maidan. He shouldn’t have stopped with Crimea, … would have saved a whole lot of blood and treasure.
I did not contend that he invaded to prevent peace. I noted that a reasonable case could be made for the proposition.
As for your second paragraph, yes, we agree that you’re pro-war when you support the regime conducting the war.
OK, no more hair-splitting. Given past performance, the last 40 yrs of Neocon ascendancy, do you see any other way short of abject submission it could be stopped?
+++
Shorter than my long-winded presentation, therefore better.
Thanks, Bear. But it only got an evasion, no?
Absolutely. Putin could have given the Ukrainians a missile/artillery slap in the Donbas and asked them if they wanted some more. And then it would have gone back to the same “frozen conflict” it had been for eight years.
Instead, he took the bait — and has spent the last ten months floundering around with a hook in his mouth.
Had the US not involved NATO, starting in 2014, had NATO at the behest of the US not introduced weapons into Ukraine, Had Boris not visited Kiev this past year, the most likely scenario for February – March 2022 is that the Russians and Ukrainians would have sat down and discussed what Putin wanted settled prior to 2014.
My guess is that given a meeting between the two sides during that period and assuming that Biden had kept his f*king hands off, there would have been an accommodation between the sides that everyone (possible exception the PNAC crowd) would have been able to live with – both inside and outside Ukraine, with or without the Donbass.
All of these arguments I see here which ignore the way we intervened – and the extent of that intervention – to amplify this conflict into the clusterfuck that it now is are, in the opinion of this commenter pure bullshit. And commenters who deliberately ignore these basic facts on the ground are at best, dishonest.
Your oughts are interesting.
I’m interested in is, not ought.
“* Yes, so far as I can tell, Putin has fabulously enriched himself and his cronies, just like most successful politicians do to the best of their ability.”
When was the last time you counted Putin’s money?
Isn’t it interesting that there is scant mention of the bio-chemical labs? The ones that Victoria Nuland blabbed about.
Nothing about this is reasonable to surmise.
The NATO drills inside in Ukraine, as well. Russia launched the invasion on the 24th, only days after this shelling. The Donbas was desperate to have Russia recognize independence.
As I have said to others. If the US had invaded after there were attacks on a demographic culturally strongly linked to the US, Americans would have been cheering a humanitarian rescue mission. I’m not claiming that it was, just the hypocrisy.
Always siding with Russia somehow.
Like Russia didn’t violate the Minsk agreement as well because it too benefited them and bought them time for the invasion and both side knew the invasion was coming.
But my side is the only side brainwashed as you stated before.
Russia isn’t a signatory of the Minsk II agreement.
Also, we have that “reading for meaning” issue again, here. The issue under discussion is the fact that Ukraine and the Europeans who brokered the agreement and were supposed to serve as guarantors have confessed to doing so under false pretenses. Violations and benefit are different questions.
Did I say that “your side” is the only one brainwashed? I don’t remember that and I certainly don’t think it, so if I said it I may have been drunk or suffering from a raging fever. 😏 I do remember saying, more than once, that you and your side are brainwashed. I definitely mean that.
“Russia isn’t a signatory of the Minsk II agreement.”
It was a signatory to both Minsk agreements.
You’re right, Russia was a signatory. I should be more careful.
I was responding to the claim that Russia “violated” Minsk II, which would be difficult to do, because it isn’t a principal party and its official involvement is as a member of the contact group.
The only way I can think of that Russia, individually, could be in violation would be in failing to withdraw “foreign military formations.” But as you know, the parties fundamentally disagree about the definitions of such formations in the Donbas.
Well, Duh. The Russians have repeated ad nauseam to the blockheads in DC and NATO that there is no longer a choice as to whether they will keep fighting.
Something about never trusting anything the jackasses in the west say.
Interesting to see an article highlighting the statements of both leaders to continue the fight yet, the usual Russia supporters here rushed to criticize zelensky and the West only.
Putin is cool. Nothing negative to say about him.
Antiwar my rear end. This is straight up pro Putin war.
“I kill you!”
“No, I kill you!”
“you shut up because I kill you!”
“No, I kill you!”
…….. uncle sam, putin, kim jong, Xi, etc ….
A Freudian slip of sorts? Look at the invitation in this article: https://www.vox.com/world/2022/12/16/23507640/dc-party-invite-military-contractors-money-ukraine-russia-war-us
This picture is worth a thousand words.
It’s worth a hundred-billion dollars.
They aren’t a bit shy, are they?
So who’s going to supply Ukraine with weapons to defend their country? You, @Red Douglas, Putin?
How about the picture of Putin sending thousands of weapons and troops to kill Ukrainians? how about all the thousands of artillery rounds and kamakaze drones they have purchased from North Korea and Iran?
Do you have a problem with any of this?
Point of potential conflict, if this keeps up. “The Russian Federation” seems determined as hell. Putin in one tough MFer… The New Year is off with the usual big bag and not a whimper…
“Putin in one tough MFer” So was Hitler.
At least Hitler fought in a war. WWI. WIA. However, the comparison is pretty dumb. In light of the treatment of the Soviet Union/Russia after WWII it is pretty obvious that the “rules-based” West would never allow the Soviet Union/Russia to be a part of the Western Alliance. Putin gets it. The only comparison is the feeling Germany had about the treatment after WWI. (there is evidence that WWI was creation of the West to weaken Germany – sound familiar?)
The comparison is dumb because you are a Putin supporter and of course you are compelled to defend him.
Anyone with the power, control and wealth of Putin has all the ingredients to be a tough Mfer but how cool if he would’ve used those attributions to promote peace and restraint from invading neighboring countries.
You just started the new year showing true colors by praising Putin.
And yes, calling someone a bad/tough Mfer these days is a praise/compliment.
Why not just an immediate cease-fire where the line is on the ground right now? A pull-back of 25-30km on each side of that line by both parties, to be overseen by U.N. observers and peacekeepers drawn from non-involved nations, while peace talks are started at some agreed upon neutral territory? At least the killing might end for a moment. Instead, on this site, I am sure to just see more calls for ‘total victory’ and/or ‘unconditional surrender’. I am rooting for the 30 km wide planet-killing asteroid heading our way that I so hope is out there. ;-/
Since this is an antiwar website, ahem, I would like to say: I wish for all of us, indeed The World, PEACE in our New Year!
Thank you for that wish. But I am forced by my skepticism to ask….is this site really antiwar? I see a lot of tribal boosterism and trolls getting paychecks somehow for being trolly. Not a lot of principled opposition to war. :-/
Being antiwar doesn’t mean you have to be impartial. After all, how would you have been impartial in the war between Nazis and Allies? No, being antiwar means understanding the root cause of a war so as to clearly see the way to peace. War propaganda operating with false flags and lies can never be antiwar.
Fair enough.
That is why I put the ‘ahem’…
Zelenskyy is correct in observing that Russia no longer has any military objectives in Ukraine. Russia is now deliberately attacking civilian infrastructure with the goal of making civilians suffer in the hope that this will drive Ukraine to surrender. This is a classic stage in asymmetric war when the stronger power doubles down on the civilian population after failing to achieve military victory against the elusive resistance. The invader loses the capacity to distinguish between the resistance combatants and civilians and eventually goes to war against the people and against the country and the land itself. It will end for Russia like it ended for the US in Vietnam and Afghanistan.The Russians will eventually get a government that recognizes the need to withdraw from Putin’s Ukrainian war.
Right on.