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Transcript of Vladimir Putin’s speech announcing ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine

The text below is a partial translation of a nationally televised address by russian president vladimir putin ahead of his country’s troops launching an offensive against ukraine., save articles for later.

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Russia cannot feel safe and develop, exist without the constant threat emanating from the territory of the modern Ukraine. Let me remind you that in 2000, 2005, we gave a military rebuff to terrorists in the Caucasus. We defended the integrity of our state, preserved Russia and, in 2014, we supported the people of Crimea and Sevastopol.

In 2015, the armed forces were used to put a reliable barrier to prevent the penetration of terrorists from Syria to Russia. There was no other way we could protect ourselves. The same thing is happening now.

You and I have simply not been given any other opportunity to protect Russia and our people, except the one we will have to us today. Circumstances require us to act resolutely and immediately. The People’s Republic of Donbas appealed to Russia for help.

In this regard, in accordance with Article 51, part seven of the UN Charter, with the approval of the Federation Council of Russia and pursuant to the Federal Assembly, on February 22 of this year, [we] ratified treaties of friendship and mutual assistance with the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic.

I made a decision to conduct a special military operation. Its goal is to protect people who have been abused by the genocide of the Kyiv regime for eight years. And to this end, we will strive for the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine, as well as bringing to justice those who committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation.

At the same time, our plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories. We are not going to impose anything on anyone by force. At the same time, we hear more often lately from the West that documents signed by the Soviet totalitarian regime that fixed the results of the Second World War should not be implemented.

What can we respond to that?

The results of the Second World War, as well as the sacrifices made by our people on the altar of the victory of Nazism are sacred, but this does not contradict the high values of human rights and freedoms based on the realities that have developed during all post-war decades.

It also does not cancel the right of nations to self-determination enshrined in Article one of the UN Charter.

Let me remind you that not after the USSR was created, nor after the Second World War, no one asked people who lived in certain territories included in modern Ukraine how they themselves wanted to build their life. Our policy is based on freedom of choice for all to determine their own future and that of their children.

This partial transcript was translated from Russian by Washington Post journalist Mary Ilyushina. An official Russian version in English can be found here .

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Kursk incursion: Russia must 'dislodge' Ukrainian troops, says Putin

Speaking at a meeting with top security and defence officials, the Russian president said the invasion in Kursk was an attempt by Kyiv to stop Moscow's offensive in Ukraine and gain a better negotiation position.

Monday 12 August 2024 15:28, UK

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Putin says ukraine's incursion into kursk is an attempt to stop moscow’s eastern offensive.

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Putin says Ukraine wants to destabilise Russia with Kursk offensive

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Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Alex Richardson and Angus MacSwan

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Morning Briefing: Asia Pacific Edition

Tuesday briefing: putin lashes out over incursion.

Plus, A.I. is helping piece together an ancient epic.

By Justin Porter

Putin blamed the West for Ukraine’s incursion

President Vladimir Putin lashed out at the West yesterday over Ukraine’s weeklong incursion into Russian territory. His comments were a sign of how the surprise attack has unsettled the Kremlin.

“The West is fighting us with the hands of the Ukrainians,” Putin said during a televised meeting with his top officials. “The enemy will certainly get the response he deserves, and all our goals, without doubt, will be accomplished.”

Even as Moscow scrambled to respond to the incursion in the Kursk region, Russian forces continued to pummel Ukrainian positions in the east, Kyiv military officials said.

The Kursk region’s acting governor was shown telling Putin by video link that 28 towns and villages were under Ukrainian control. He said Ukrainian troops had pushed nearly 12 kilometers into Russian territory. Separately, the head of Ukraine’s armed forces claimed control of more than twice as much territory, “about 1,000 square kilometers.”

Background: Analysts said that Ukraine’s move had two main goals: to draw Russian forces from the front lines in eastern Ukraine and to seize territory that could serve as a bargaining chip in future peace negotiations. Putin insisted that the attack would not soften his negotiating position.

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Putin says Ukraine will ‘receive a worthy response’ over Kursk incursion

Ukraine’s military commander says his forces control about 1,000sq km of the Russian territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Ukraine is trying to undermine Russian stability with its incursion into the south of the country and warns that Ukraine will receive “a worthy response”.

Last week, Ukrainian forces rammed through the Russian border and swept across western parts of the Kursk region. The incursion is Ukraine’s biggest across the border since the start of Russia’s war in the country in 2022.

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In ukraine, peace talks no longer taboo as russia’s war rages on, ukraine arrests energy official as it continues anti-corruption drive, has ukraine’s incursion into russia’s kursk changed dynamics of the war.

Apparently caught by surprise, Moscow has hit back militarily by deploying its own troops to quash the incursion. Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday that additional forces and resources had arrived in Kursk, without elaborating on the numbers.

“Heavy tracked vehicles are being loaded onto automobile trailers for prompt delivery to the areas where Ukrainian Armed Forces formations are being blocked and to ensure the safety of the road surface,” the military reported.

On Monday, Ukraine’s army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyii, said Kyiv controls about 1,000sq km (386sq miles) of Kursk, according to a video excerpt of his report shared by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Telegram.

Monday was also the first time Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukrainian military forces are operating inside Kursk. In his nightly address the president said war was now coming back to Russia after Moscow had taken fighting to other countries.

Earlier in the day, Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov told Putin that six days of Ukrainian ground attacks on his region had resulted in the loss of 28 settlements, and the incursion was about 12km deep and 40km wide.

He said 12 civilians had been killed and 121,000 people were evacuated or left the areas affected by fighting on their own. The total planned number of evacuations is 180,000.

False accusations?

On Monday, a new evacuation order was also issued in Russia’s Belgorod region as its Krasnaya Yaruga district feared an incursion by Ukrainian forces, according to Vyacheslav Gladkov, the regional governor.

Krasnaya Yaruga is located in the northwest of Belgorod and borders Kursk.

Putin said at a televised meeting: “The losses of the Ukrainian armed forces are increasing dramatically for them, including among the most combat-ready units, units that the enemy is transferring to our border.”

“The enemy will certainly receive a worthy response, and all the goals facing us will, without a doubt, be achieved,” the president added.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said Russia was trying to falsely accuse Kyiv’s military of war crimes.

The SBU said on Telegram that it had gathered information showing Russia may stage crimes that it would, in turn, blame on Ukraine.

Moscow and Kyiv regularly accuse each other of planning so-called false flag operations.

Military analyst Sean Bell told Al Jazeera that while critics deemed Ukraine’s surprise attack reckless, “Momentum and initiative is everything in warfare. This caught everybody off guard.”

Kyiv ready for retaliation?

Ukraine has also been bracing for more Russian attacks in retaliation for its recent cross-border incursion.

On Sunday, at least two people were killed and three injured in a Russian air attack outside Kyiv. Ukraine also announced it had evacuated 20,000 people from the Sumy region, which sits across the border from Kursk, as the fighting in the area intensified.

Moscow and Kyiv have also accused each other of starting a fire on the grounds of Europe’s largest and now Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine on Sunday with both sides reporting no sign of elevated radiation.

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has reiterated his calls to Ukraine’s allies for “a full-fledged air shield that can protect all our cities and communities”.

“Ukrainians see a prospect of a long war, a difficult war, a bloody war,” Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told Al Jazeera.

Ukraine needs two things – better arms and ammunition supplies and a massive nationwide mobilisation that exceeds highly unpopular recent steps to enlist tens of thousands of men, he added.

Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has urged Russia and Ukraine to follow “three principles for de-escalating the situation”.

There should be “no expansion of the battlefield, no escalation of fighting and no fuelling the flame by any party”, a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, adding that China will “play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the crisis”.

China presents itself as a neutral party in the war and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations. But it is also a close political and economic ally of Russia, and NATO members have branded Beijing a “decisive enabler” of the war, which it has never condemned.