Ukraine war: Joe Biden doubles down after Vladimir Putin’s ‘satanic’ nuclear rant
Vladimir Putin has claimed a “nuclear precedent”, as he annexed large parts of the Ukraine and blamed the US for sabotaging Russia’s gas pipeline, provoking a fierce reaction.
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Vladimir Putin has made chilling nuclear threats to defend the world’s largest land grab since WWII, as he blamed the US and its allies for blowing up Russia’s gas pipeline to Europe.
In a menacing speech from the Kremlin, Putin vowed to “defend our land with all our strength and all our means” after claiming ownership of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia to create a connection from Russia to Crimea.
He added that the United States set a nuclear “precedent” by bombing Japan at the end of World War II, and blamed the “satanic” alliance of “Anglo-Saxon” nations for sabotaging the Nord Stream pipeline after sanctions failed.
The reaction was swift.
Ukraine formally submitted its bid for NATO membership, the US and UK announced a massive new wave of sanctions, and Russian ambassadors were summoned across western countries to answer for Putin’s “sham elections”.
The dramatic escalation comes as a Danish-Swedish report said the four leaks in the Baltic Sea pipelines were due to “deliberate” underwater blasts caused by “several hundreds of kilos of explosions.
“It is hard to believe but it is a fact that they [”Anglo-Saxons”] organised the blasts on the Nord Stream international gas pipelines,” Putin said.
“In fact, they began to destroy the pan-European energy infrastructure. It is clear to everyone who benefits from this. Of course, he who benefits did it.”
The US and UK announced a massive new wave of sanctions following the annexation of Ukrainian territory, targeting Russian business, civilian, military and political services and individuals.
US President Joe Biden said rallied the international community to hold Russia accountable for the “phony claims of annexation” and stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes”
“Make no mistake: these actions have no legitimacy,” he said in a statement.
“The United States will always honour Ukraine’s internationally-recognised borders.”
Mr Biden added that Putin’s actions were a sign he was struggling, and that his “sham” elections would never be recognised by the US or the world.
“He can’t seize his neighbour’s territory and get away with it,” Biden added.
“America is fully prepared with our NATO allies to defend every single inch of NATO territory, every single inch. So, Mr Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. Every inch.”
At a White House press conference called to update the US public on the government response to Hurricane Ian, on that Biden labelled “An American crisis” the president also addressed the Ukraine crisis.
“I want to say this again. America is fully prepared with our NATO allies to defend every single inch of NATO territory.
“So Mr. Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. Every inch,” Biden said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram that his country was already “de facto” part of NATO, but that he was accelerating the formal application.
Putin sealed the so-called annexation in a ceremony, at the Georgievsky Hall of the Great Kremlin Palace, with a bizarre five-way handshake with the four installed leaders of the annexed territories, Vladimir Saldo in Kherson region, Yevgeny Balitsky, in Zaporizhzhia, Denis Pushilin, Donetsk, and Leonid Pasechnik in Lugansk.
While bringing the four regions into the new Russian state, Putin claimed there were no plans to re-form or create a new version of the Soviet Union.
“In 1991, at Belovezh Forest, without asking the will of ordinary citizens, representatives of the then-party elites decided to destroy the USSR, and people suddenly found themselves cut off from their motherland. This tore apart and dismembered our nation, becoming a national catastrophe,” Putin said.
“But this is no longer important. There is no Soviet Union. We can’t bring the past back. And Russia doesn’t need it anymore. We are not striving towards that,” he added, slamming past Russian leaders, like Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, for destroying their “great country”.
Mikhail Kasyanov, Yeltsin’s last (acting) prime minister before Putin took over the presidency in 2000, described the speech as a “strange historical lecture with manipulation of facts” that contained thinly-veiled nuclear threats to defend the new territories “by all means”.
“I don’t think he’ll use [them] but the threat should be taken seriously and [the West should] be prepared,” Kasyanov told Sky News.
After vowing to use “all means” to defend the four regions in southeastern Ukraine, Putin delivered a moral lecture against the US and its occupation of foreign territories.
“The United States is the only country in the world that has twice used nuclear weapons, destroying the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and setting a precedent,” Putin said.
“Even today, they actually occupy Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries, and at the same time cynically call them allies of equal standing.”
Putin added that the “dictatorship of the Western elites”, beginning from the Middle Ages through the colonisation of Africa, India, the Americas, and China, was looking for new ways to break Russia apart into smaller states.
“This is a complete denial of humanity, the overthrow of faith and traditional values. Indeed, the suppression of freedom itself has taken on the features of religion: outright Satanism,” he added.
“Do we really want, here, in our country, in Russia, instead of ‘mum’ and ‘dad’, to have ‘parent number one’, ‘parent number two’, ‘number three’? Have they gone completely insane?
“Do we really want it drilled into children in our schools that there are supposedly genders besides women and men, and offer the chance to undergo sex change operations? We have a different future, our own future.”
NORD STREAM BLASTS EQUAL TO HUNDREDS OF KILOS OF TNT
The four leaks affecting the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea were caused by underwater explosions corresponding to hundreds of kilos of explosives, a Danish-Swedish report said Friday.
“The magnitude of the explosions was measured at 2.3 and 2.1 on the Richter scale, respectively, probably corresponding to an explosive load of several hundred kilos,” the two countries said in a joint report to the UN Security Council.
Following a request from Russia, the Security Council is due to hold an emergency meeting on the leaks later on Friday.
“All available information indicates that those explosions are the result of a deliberate act,” the countries said.
The source of the explosions has remained a mystery, however, with both Washington and Moscow denying responsibility.
“It cannot be ruled out that this is a reckless attack on Europe’s energy infrastructure and an attempt to destabilise the already tense security situation,” the defence ministers of the Nordic countries — Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland — said in a joint statement Friday.
In their report the UN Security Council, Denmark and Sweden also said that “the possible impact on maritime life in the Baltic Sea is of concern, and the climate effect would likely be very substantial”.
All the leaks, which were discovered on Monday, are in the Baltic Sea off the Danish island of Bornholm.
Two of the leaks are located in the Swedish exclusive economic zone, and the two others in the Danish one.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which connect Russia to Germany, have been at the centre of geopolitical tensions as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
While the pipelines are not currently in operation, they both still contained gas.
On Thursday, the pipelines operator said it had so far been unable to assess the damage but said it would do so “as soon as it receives necessary official permits”.
It said access could be allowed “only after the pressure in the gas pipeline has stabilised and the gas leakage has stopped”.
Danish authorities have said the leaks will continue until the gas in the pipelines is exhausted, which is expected to occur on Sunday.
– With AFP
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