Russia celebrates today, May 9, as Victory Day, when the defeat of Nazi Germany is commemorated. Many wondered if Vladimir Putin would make some grandiose announcement today, claim victory in Ukraine or the like.
Hot Air shares part of a New York Times story (behind paywall) of what Putin did say, and here is some of that copy:
It was, as expected, a call to battle using rhetoric slandering Ukraine’s defenders as “Nazis” while evoking Russia’s victorious World War II past — perhaps the most unifying element of the country’s diverse identity. The speech was also conspicuous for what it did not include.
Mr. Putin did not try to frame any part of the Ukraine war as a “victory,” offering no signal of an imminent end to the conflict. His army’s efforts have fallen well short of expectations: They have been vanquished around Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital; pushed back in the northeast; and are making only sporadic gains in the Donbas, the eastern region Russia now says it is focused on.
The Russian leader did not renew his implicit threats of nuclear war, after warning late last month that countries that “create a strategic threat to Russia” during the war in Ukraine could expect “retaliatory strikes” that would be “lightning fast.”
Mr. Putin did lash out at the United States, as he has in the past, depicting America as the true aggressor and Russia as a stronghold of patriotism and “traditional values.”
You have to wonder if he feels beleaguered, having learned that his army is less tough than he evidently believed it to be.
