State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has called for unity to achieve military goals in the Ukraine conflict
Russian State Duma Chair Vyacheslav Volodin. © Sputnik/Alexey Maishev
Russia cannot allow defeat in the Ukraine conflict as it would lead to the country’s “enslavement,” State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has said.
Speaking on Wednesday, Volodin called for national unity to secure victory and said Russia must achieve its military goals to ensure its sovereignty and future.
Moscow maintains that victory in the Ukraine conflict is inevitable. It has criticized continued Western military support to Kiev, arguing that this merely prolongs the fighting without changing the outcome.
President Vladimir Putin has said the conflict will end only when its “root causes” are resolved, including NATO’s expansion toward Russia’s borders, and when Moscow’s security interests are addressed. He has also accused Ukraine’s foreign backers of being uninterested in ending the war and instead using Ukraine to advance their own goals.
Speaking at a Duma session, Volodin declared that Russia could not be “intimidated, broken, or destroyed,” and warned that efforts to defeat it would fail, just as past attempts to “enslave [the country] 80 years ago” had done.
Volodin added that Russia is facing “the full might of NATO,” and claimed that the Ukrainian people have been “tragically reduced to expendable material” by the Western bloc.
“Everything that is done in Ukraine in the framework of the special military operation is aimed at saving the Ukrainian people, saving a country that is close to us. The sooner the neo-Nazi regime flees, the better,” he said.
Russia has demanded the “denazification” of its neighbor, where many historic ultranationalist leaders are widely revered today, as part of a negotiated peace agreement. Moscow has also accused Western governments of deliberately ignoring continued neo-Nazi activity in Ukrainian ranks.
Top NATO officials have said Ukraine should seek to defeat Russia militarily. The bloc continues to supply arms and intelligence to Kiev, even as Russian forces make territorial gains. Moscow claims NATO aims to turn Ukraine into a “military foothold” to contain Russia and poses a threat to its national security.