Russian President Vladimir Putin made a public appearance on Friday when he spoke at Luzhniki stadium in Moscow as part of celebrations commemorating the eighth year of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Putin praised his troops fighting in Ukraine three weeks into the invasion.
CNN reports thousands were in attendance, including many state employees. The stage behind the Russian president contained two large banners: one translating as “For Russia” and the other “For a World Without Nazism.”
Newsweek reports the first slogan references Putin’s belief that the two disputed provinces in Eastern Ukraine belong to Russia. The second suggests that an invasion is necessary to curb white nationalist and Neo-Nazi sentiments in the region. Putin has repeatedly indicated that genocide of Russian citizens is taking place in the region by white nationalist Ukrainians — a claim disputed by western governments.
On March 17, U.S. President Joe Biden dubbed Russian President Vladimir Putin a “pure thug” and a “murderous dictator,” his latest broadside against the Russian leader as the crisis in Ukraine drags on.
President Biden claimed Putin is “a ruthless tyrant, a pure thug who is waging an unjust war against the people of Ukraine” at the annual Friends of Ireland Luncheon on Capitol Hill. Biden said the U.S. is currently working on getting military aid to Ukraine funded by Congress.
PBS reports that Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused Western countries of disregarding war crimes in Ukraine last week, claiming that their silence “encouraged the emergence of neo-Nazism and Russophobia.” Over the weekend, Russia’s UN representative reaffirmed that the country is conducting “a particular military operation against nationalists to safeguard the population of Donbas, ensure denazification, and demilitarization.”
Putin has also accused “Banderites and neo-Nazis” in Ukraine of erecting heavy weapons and using civilians as human shields. Banderites is a derogatory nickname for followers of controversial Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera.
“There is more to it,” Putin said. “The fact is we know what needs to be done next, how it needs to be done, and at what cost — and we will fulfill all these plans, absolutely.”
The large stadium event was intended to bolster public support for the military action in Ukraine. Despite various state polls suggesting that a vast majority of the Russian populace already support the war, various Russian citizens and social media influencers have said that the actual levels are much lower. They believe that only citizens sixty years and older agree with the invasion at the levels indicated by that polling.
March 24 will mark one month since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.