MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that his country’s intervention in Ukraine had been necessary because the West was “preparing for the invasion of our land, including Crimea.”
Putin was speaking at the annual Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square marking the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.
Unlike the West, the Russian people will never give up their love for the country, faith and traditional values, Tass quoted Putin as having said at a Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square.
“We will never give up our love for the country, faith, traditional values, ancestral customs and respect for all peoples and cultures. As for the West, it seems to be determined to cancel these millennia-old values,” he noted.
“This moral degradation paved the way for cynical falsifications of the history of World War II, attempts to incite Russophobia, glorify traitors, mock the memory of their victims and wipe out the bravery of those who fought and suffered for the Victory,” the head of state stressed.
Putin pointed out that the United States, particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, “started talking about its exceptionalism, which is humiliating not only for the entire world but also for its satellites who have to pretend that they don’t notice anything and obediently accept it all,” the Russian president emphasized.
