Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in a meeting with State Duma faction leaders said if the West wanted to try to defeat Russia on the battlefield, it was welcome to try.
Putin said in a belligerent speech to legislative leaders that Russia was only getting started in Ukraine.
“Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. What can you say, let them try,” Putin said in a meeting with faction leaders.
“We have heard many times that the West wants to fight us to the last Ukrainian. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it seems that everything is heading towards this.”
Putin also called attention to the fact that the West was the one who started the war in Donbas by backing Ukraine's coup in 2014.
“We are told that we started a war in the Donbas. No, it was unleashed by this very collective West, organizing and supporting an unconstitutional armed coup in Ukraine, and then encouraging and justifying genocide against people in the Donbas,” the Russian President said.
Picture Credits: AP
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