Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday issued a stern warning to the United States and its allies not to provoke or test its military amid heightened tensions on the border with Ukraine and in the Black Sea.
The Russian leader has promised that any country that crosses Moscow’s “red line” on territorial and other issues would “regret” their actions while delivering his state of the nation address to both houses of parliament.
“I hope no one dares to cross the red line with regard to Russia, and we will determine where it is in each specific case. “Those who organize any provocations that threaten our core security interests will regret their actions more than they have long regretted,” the 68-year-old president began.
“We want good relations, and we really do not want to burn the bridges,” he continued. “But if some people misjudge our good intentions regarding indifference or weakness and intend to burn or even blow up those bridges themselves, Russia’s response will be asymmetrical, fast and tough.”
Putin went on to announce nations imposing “illegal, politically motivated economic sanctions and gross attempts to enforce the will of others,” and appear to be referring to sanctions imposed by Pres. Praying placed on the Kremlin.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on the warning.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki asked during a briefing on the matter on Wednesday, saying: ‘Well, our sanctions have been put in place first, a lot of them are being done in collaboration with our European partners and allies because we have a strong view and the view of the global community is that there must be consequences for actions.
“We never expected one set of sanctions or an individual set of sanctions to change behavior immediately, but it also sends a clear message that behavior is unacceptable and that it cannot continue,” she continued. . that “our consequences, as we have long said, many sanctions are seen, and others are not seen, and we no longer talk specifically about them.”
Since the outbreak of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has supported pro-Russian insurgents in neighboring republics – including the suspension of Allied breakaway countries in Georgia and Moldova.
In 2014, Putin presided over the annexation of Crimea without the consent of Ukraine in a rare contemporary border change with violence.
The deployment of Russian troops is often obscure, but Putin’s government has reportedly deployed troops to Crimea to facilitate annexation in 2014 and secretly support some breakaway provinces in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
The Kremlin continued to increase its military presence in the region, specifically with its naval ships in the Black Sea.
Biden declared a national state of emergency in the region last Thursday, with more than three dozen people in Russia expelling sanctions and ten diplomats.
At the same time, he scrapped plans to send two American warships to the Black Sea.
Putin’s remarks come on Wednesday one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invited Putin to meet in the Donbas region for peace talks.
“Mr Putin, I am ready to go even further and invite you to meet in any part of the Ukrainian Donbas where war is going on,” Zelensky said in a 13-minute speech uploaded on Tuesday. .
“Once the president of the Russian Federation said ‘if a fight is inevitable, you must strike first. “But in my opinion, every leader today must understand that a fight can not be inevitable if we are not talking about backlash and hooligans, but about a real war and millions of lives. And unlike in a battle, in a war, all sides lose. ‘
The news of the meeting came as the Russian military continued to push up its fighter jets and other equipment, according to satellite images released this week from Morozovsk air base.
In the scene photos, 15 fighter jets appear on the tarmac, waiting for orders to drive to the border.
With Post threads