Putin says Moscow main aim is to protect the Russian-speaking people of Donbas in eastern Ukraine
\n LONDON
\nPresident Vladimir Putin defended Russia\u2019s assault on Ukraine in a rare public appearance on Tuesday, the first time he has addressed the conflict since Moscow withdrew its forces from northern Ukraine after they were halted at the gates of Kyiv.
\nState television showed Putin visiting the Vostochny space base in Russia\u2019s Far East, accompanied by his ally, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, to mark the anniversary of the Soviet success in launching the first manned space flight.
\nAsked by Russian space agency workers if the operation in Ukraine would achieve its goals, Putin said: \u201cAbsolutely. I don\u2019t have any doubt at all.\u201d
\n\u201cIts goals are absolutely clear and noble,\u201d Putin said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a choice. It was the right decision.\u201d
\nPutin said Russia\u2019s main aims were to protect the Russian-speaking people of Donbas in eastern Ukraine and to end Ukraine\u2019s position as a centre of nationalistic anti-Russian feeling.
\nPutin, who had been ubiquitous on Russian television in the early days of the war, had largely retreated from public view since Moscow pulled its forces out of northern Ukraine this month.
\nHis only public appearance in the past week was at the funeral of a nationalist lawmaker, where he gave brief remarks and did not directly address the war. On Monday he met the visiting chancellor of Austria at a country residence outside Moscow but no images of that meeting were released.
\nThe West casts Putin\u2019s war as a land grab of a sovereign country. Putin calls it a \u201cspecial military operation\u201d to disarm Russia\u2019s neighbour, describing Ukraine as a puppet of the United States.
\nIn Tuesday\u2019s remarks, he appeared to draw an analogy between Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin\u2019s first space flight 61 years ago and Russia\u2019s defiance of Western economic sanctions today.
\n\u201cThe sanctions were total, the isolation was complete but the Soviet Union was still first in space,\u201d said Putin, 69, recalling his own wonderment as a schoolboy learning of the achievement.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t intend to be isolated,\u201d Putin said. \u201cIt is impossible to severely isolate anyone in the modern world\u2013especially such a vast country as Russia.\u201d
\nLukashenko also dismissed the impact of sanctions: \u201cWhy on earth are we getting so worried about these sanctions?\u201d he said.
\nRussia\u2019s Cold War-era space successes, especially Gagarin\u2019s flight and the 1957 launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, were depicted by Soviet leaders as proof of their system\u2019s superiority.
\nLast year, Russia\u2019s nominal GDP was just $1.6 trillion\u2013smaller than Italy\u2019s\u2013and only around 7% of the $22.9 trillion US economy. Russia\u2019s economy is on track to contract by more than 10% in 2022, worst since the years following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Putin says Moscow main aim is to protect the Russian-speaking people of Donbas in eastern Ukraine LONDON President Vladimir Putin defended Russia\u2019s assault on Ukraine in a rare public appearance on Tuesday, the first time he has addressed the conflict since Moscow withdrew its forces from northern Ukraine after they were halted at the gates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-254652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n