Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s raid of Ukraine started almost two weeks ago and thousands of soldiers and civilians have died since that time.
Each side provides a different number of dead and wounded, but there’s no doubt this war is a horrible start to this year.
However, Putin says everything is going the way he hoped it would and recently came out with a statement against the West. He said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United States are behaving like “bandits.”
Putin also declared the western sanctions against Russia, including crippling its currency, are a “declaration of war.”
Putin Issues a Further Stark Warning
In addition to saying the West’s economic sanctions are the same as declaring war on Russia, Putin also spoke about the idea of a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and many Ukrainian officials have been pressing NATO to enact a no-fly zone over their territory. This would allow refugees a better chance to escape safely and stop Russian troops from being able to move with as much impunity.
It would furthermore put Western forces and Russia in combat with each other and be the start of a massive global conflict, which is why NATO has so far resisted taking this step.
Putin said that if NATO and the West do enter the war via a no-fly zone, they would be met with “catastrophic” repercussions and retaliation for doing that.
BREAKING:
Movement of tanks and military vehicles now reported from Kazakhstan.
The opposition in the country is raising the alarm that the Kazakh authorities could be secretly preparing to go to war against Ukraine, or the wider West, together with Putin.
🇰🇿🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/sDuPYfTicv
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 3, 2022
Getting in Putin’s Mind
Putin claimed his original reason for invading Ukraine was to save it from Nazis.
He asserts the government is run by a bunch of drug addicts and criminals who support neo-Nazis and have been persecuting and murdering Russian-backed areas in the east of Ukraine.
Furthermore, Putin says NATO’s expansion eastward breaks prior agreements and was a brazen attempt to lie and deceive Russia. He says America would do the same as him if Russia or another hostile power put missiles on the US border at Canada or Mexico.
Re-establishing a Russian hold over Ukraine, therefore, is a way to prevent NATO and the US from encroaching closer to Russia with missiles and weapons systems capable of hitting Moscow in a short time.
Putin says the war is going the way he “planned” and his military is doing a great job and fulfilling their duty.
Putin has apparently decided that he is no longer limited by the Mutually Assured Destruction model that has prevented nuclear war since the 1950s, calculating that the west will never pull the trigger. If so, we're entering a new phase of truly uncharted, terrifying, waters.
— The End Justifies the Memes (@Upsidasium) March 6, 2022
NATO Responds
According to NATO and the West, Putin’s military has been plagued by numerous equipment and morale problems and is now bogged down without a clear strategy forward.
They still want to capture Kiev and other key cities, but doing so could lead to an Aleppo-style city destruction strategy.
Those who speak out against the war with “fake news” are now subject to up to 15 years in prison inside Russia, while going to a protest can get you five years behind bars.
