The Russian president makes this statement in reference to the Second World War. He also felt that his country has “what to answer” to those who threaten it.
SourceAFP
Published on
Subscriber-only audio playback
VLadimir Putin said Thursday that Russia was “again” threatened by German tanks, a reference to the armored vehicles promised by Berlin to kyiv, drawing a new parallel between the war against Hitler and his offensive in Ukraine.
“It’s unbelievable, but German Leopard tanks, on which crosses are drawn, threaten us again”, declared in Volgograd (ex-Stalingrad) the Russian president, during the celebrations of the 80e anniversary of the Soviet victory against the German army in Stalingrad, adding that Russia had “what to answer” to the countries which threaten it.
“And again, Hitler’s successors want to fight with Russia on Ukrainian soil using the ‘banderovtsy’,” he added, named after supporters of Ukrainian ultranationalist Stepan Bandera (1909 -1959) who had collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.READ ALSOGérard Araud – Are we at war with Russia?
Russia will use “all its military potential”
Same reaction from the Kremlin. “When new weapons supplied by the ‘collective West’ appear, Russia will make full use of its existing potential to respond” to these deliveries, said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Russian news agencies.
Since the beginning of the offensive that he launched in Ukraine on February 24, Vladimir Putin has assured that the political leaders in power in kyiv are “neo-Nazis” at the origin of a “genocide” of the Russian-speaking populations of this neighboring country. With the green light from Berlin, several Western countries recently promised to deliver German-made Leopard 2 heavy tanks to kyiv.
“Those who drag European countries, including Germany, into a new war against Russia and irresponsibly present this as a fait accompli and those who expect to defeat Russia on the battlefield obviously do not understand that ‘A contemporary war with Russia will be completely different,’ Mr Putin warned.
“We are not sending our tanks to their borders, but we have something to respond to them and it will not be limited to the use of armored vehicles,” he continued.