Speaking on the stage prepared at the Luzhniki Stadium in the capital Moscow, Putin promised that the Kremlin would achieve all its goals in Ukraine to tens of thousands of people waving Russian flags and chanting “Russia, Russia, Russia”.
In his speech on the stage decorated with slogans such as “for a world without Nazism” and “for our president”, 69-year-old Putin said, “We know what we must do, how we must do it, and at what cost we must do it. We will definitely achieve all our plans,” he said.
It was observed that the “Z” symbol used by the Russian forces in their wars in Ukraine was attached to most of the banners at the rally.
Wearing a turtleneck sweater and coat, Putin said the soldiers fighting in what Russia calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine demonstrated Russia’s unity.
“By standing shoulder to shoulder, they help and support each other,” Putin said. When needed, they cover their bodies and support each other like brothers. We haven’t had such a union for a long time,” he said.
While the Russian leader’s speech was continuing, the state television stopped broadcasting for a short time and previously recorded national anthems began to be played on the screen, but Putin’s speech was returned later.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov explained that the outage was caused by a technical malfunction in the server, RIA news agency reported.
It is not yet clear how the server-related issue caused this sudden and rare outage.
Putin underlined the necessity of an operation in Ukraine, and cited the reason for this as “the US use of this country to threaten Russia”. The Russian leader stressed that Russia should protect the Russian-speaking sections of Ukraine who were subjected to the “genocide”.
Ukraine, on the other hand, states that it is fighting for existence and describes Putin’s genocide allegations as nonsense. The West states that the claims that it wants to divide Russia are fictitious.
Before Putin’s speech, he played modern pop songs such as “Made in USSR” alongside the Russian national anthem at the stadium where some matches were played at the 2018 World Cup.
Putin’s favorite Russian band, Lyube, sang patriotic songs about war, sacrifice and the honor of those who fought for Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia would never accept “a world order dominated by the United States, acting like the sheriff who wants to make all the decisions in a bar.”
Referring to the 18th century Russian navy commander Fyodor Ushakov, Putin said, “He said that these storms would bring victory to Russia. It was so at that time, it is so now and it will be so in the future.”