In a televised address delivered shortly after signing the decrees grant recognition to the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Russian President Vladimir Putin effectively charged the US with aiming to break Russia up into pieces. “Ok, you do not want to have a friend and ally like us, but why depicting us as an enemy then? The answer is one. Our political regime or something else does not matter. They simply do not want to see such a large and independent country as Russia,” Putin said, adding that this answered all questions. “This is a source of traditional US policy on the Russian track.
Putin also said that Ukraine will serve as a NATO foothold for a strike against Russia, should it join the alliance. “I will explain, that the US strategic planning documents […] stipulate an option of the so-called preemptive strike on enemy’s missile systems. And we know who the main enemy for the US and NATO is. It is Russia. NATO documents officially, straightforwardly declare Russia as the main threat for Euro-Atlantic security. And Ukraine will serve as a foothold for such a strike,” he said.
Even without alliance membership, Ukraine is already in practical terms already integrated into its military command structures, Putin continued. “This means that the command of the Ukrainian armed forces and even separate formations and units can be directly exercised from NATO headquarters. The United States and NATO have already begun shamelessly exploiting Ukrainian territory as a theater of potential military operations,” he said.
“We see how the Kiev regime is being persistently beefed up militarily,” Putin stressed. “The United States alone has channeled billions of US dollars for these purposes since 2014, including the deliveries of armaments, ammunition and specialist training. In recent months, Western weapons have been continuously flowing into Ukraine demonstratively as seen by the entire world,” he said.
