Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of risking a global conflict and said no one would be allowed to threaten the world’s biggest nuclear power as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.
As Russian troops advance against Ukraine’s Western-backed forces, Putin accused Western elites who he called arrogant, of forgetting the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany, and of stoking conflicts across the world.
Putin, who sent his army into Ukraine in 2022, casts the war as part of a struggle with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 by encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence.
Ukraine and the West say Putin is engaged in an imperial-style land grab. They have vowed to defeat Russia, which currently controls about 18% of Ukraine, including Crimea, and parts of four regions in eastern Ukraine. Russia says the lands, once part of the Russian empire, are now again part of Russia.
