The main opponent of the Kremlin, Alexei Navalny, said Wednesday that the “partial military mobilization” announced by Vladimir Putin will lead to a tragedy.
“This will result in a huge tragedy, a huge number of deaths. To maintain his personal power, Putin entered a neighboring country, killed people, and now he is sending a huge number of Russian citizens to this war,” Navalny said in a statement. statements recorded on video during one of his court proceedings and quoted by the AFP news agency.
Considered Putin’s main opponent, Alexei Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon his return from Berlin, where he spent several months recovering after surviving a poisoning, for which the Russian head of state is responsible.
Navalny was transferred in mid-June 2022 to a high-security prison located about 250 kilometers east of Moscow and known for its mistreatment of prisoners.
The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, announced a “partial military deployment” of reservists and other citizens with military experience, starting on Wednesday, to defend the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and accused the West of wanting to divide and destroy Russia “by strengthening its armament” and using the Ukrainians as “cannon fodder”.
The Kremlin leader stated that the goal of the Russians is to liberate Donbass: “We have no right to leave the populations of Lugansk and Donetsk unprotected, victims of the barbaric attacks of the Ukrainian Nazis.”
More than six months after the start of the war in Ukraine, Putin thanked Russian citizens in Donbass, stressing that they are “true patriots” and that the country is “united by great Russia.”
The president lamented the attacks on the border with Russia, adding that Ukraine uses NATO technology and stressed that Moscow has “better technology than the West”, warning that “if necessary” it will use “all the means at its disposal”. willingness to avert the threat that exists against Russia and protect our people.” “This is not a bluff,” he warned.
This was the first message to the country from Putin since the start of the offensive in Ukraine, which he announced on February 24 as a “special military operation.”
Local authorities in the Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Lugansk announced Tuesday that they will hold referendums from September 23 to 27 to decide on their annexation by Russia.
On Tuesday, Putin had already accused the European Union of blocking a Russian donation of 300,000 tonnes of fertilizer to countries that need it most, denouncing what he says are increasing obstacles the West poses to Russian exports.
Source: TSF
