Russian President Vladimir delivered an address to the nation this morning in which he announced a partial mobilization of reserves and delivered a stark warning to those in the West whose goal is the destruction of Russia as a whole. “The issue concerns the necessary, imperative measures to protect the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Russia and support the desire and will of our compatriots to choose their future independently, and the aggressive policy of some Western elites, who are doing their utmost to preserve their domination and with this aim in view are trying to block and suppress any sovereign and independent development centers in order to continue to aggressively force their will and pseudo-values on other countries and nations,” Putin said. “The goal of that part of the West is to weaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country. They are saying openly now that in 1991 they managed to split up the Soviet Union and now is the time to do the same to Russia, which must be divided into numerous regions that would be at deadly feud with each other.”
Putin continued, “After the Kiev regime publicly refused to settle the issue of Donbass peacefully and went as far as to announce its ambition to possess nuclear weapons, it became clear that a new offensive in Donbass—there were two of them before—was inevitable, and that it would be inevitably followed by an attack on Russia’s Crimea, that is, on Russia. In this connection, the decision to start a pre-emptive military operation was necessary and the only option. The main goal of this operation, which is to liberate the whole of Donbass, remains unaltered.”
In this circumstance, Putin reported that not only are reservists being mobilized, but also that he has instructed the government to determine the legal status of members of the militias of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as that of volunteer units fighting in the Donbass. “It must be the same as the status of military professionals of the Russian army, including material, medical and social benefits,” he said.
Putin expressed a strong moral commitment to the people of the four regions where referenda on joining Russia are to be held, Sept. 23-27. “People in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, in Lugansk and Donetsk saw and are seeing now the atrocities perpetrated by the neo-Nazis in the [Ukrainian-]occupied areas of the Kharkov region,” he said. “The descendants of Banderites and members of Nazi punitive expeditions are killing, torturing and imprisoning people; they are settling scores, beating up, and committing outrages on peaceful civilians….
