Vladimir Putin on Thursday marked the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi forces in the battle of Stalingrad, and invoked the battle as justification for the conflict in Ukraine.
Putin laid a wreath at the eternal flame of the memorial complex to the fallen Red Army soldiers in Volgograd, the current name of the city, and criticised Germany’s decision to help arm Ukraine.
He told an audience of army officers and members of local patriotic and youth groups: “Unfortunately we see that the ideology of Nazism in its modern form and manifestation again directly threatens the security of our country.”
It comes as the Russian president has mobilised nearly 500,000 troops to attack Ukraine in a renewed offensive marking the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion, Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov has said.
Putin had asked for 300,000 Russian men to be enrolled in a general mobilisation in September, but Mr Reznikov told the French BFM network last night that the actual number of conscripts deployed to fight in Ukraine could be much more.
Volodymyr Zelensky further asserted this claim and said that Ukraine is seeing “a certain increase in the occupier’s offensive actions at the front – in the east of our country”.
