Russia is currently fighting in Ukraine for its “historic lands”, Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed on Wednesday (February 22nd) in a brief address at a grand patriotic concert at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
“Today, the (military) hierarchy told me that fighting is going on in our historic lands for our people,” Vladimir Putin said on stage in front of tens of thousands of Russians gathered, some brandishing white-blue-red flags.
During his appearance, which lasted only a few minutes, the Head of State also paid tribute to the Russian soldiers deployed in Ukraine who “are fighting with heroism, courage and valor”. “We are proud of them. »
The Russian president claimed that all those who supported the Russian army were “they are also defenders of the fatherland, in a way”. He claimed that all those who supported the Russian military were “medical workers, defense sector employees, transport workers. […] All of you who have come today to support our fighters”. The patriotic concert in which Vladimir Putin briefly took part was organized by the authorities in support of the offensive in Ukraine.
By -15°C, the public waved hundreds of Russian flags in the Luzhniki stadium, while on the stages followed patriotic songs and speeches from Russians fighting on the Ukrainian front.
The concert, dubbed “Glory to the Defenders of the Fatherland”, comes on the eve of the day of the same name and two days before the first anniversary of Russia’s offensive against its neighbor. Children from the Ukrainian Donbass, especially from the martyr city of Mariupol (southeast), took the stage, hugging a Russian soldier who exclaimed in front of the crowd: “We will win!” »
Russia is accused of having kidnapped thousands of Ukrainian children from the territories it occupies, which it denies: it considers these regions to be Russian and claims to have organized perfectly legal adoptions.
Consult our file: War in Ukraine
