In a speech marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, Vladimir Putin compared Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the fight against Nazi Germany.
Referring to Germany’s decision to send tanks to Ukraine, the Russian president said history was repeating itself.
“It is unbelievable but true,” he said. “Once again we are threatened by German Leopard tanks.”
Germany is one of the many countries that help Ukraine defend its territory.
Russia launched its bloody, full-scale offensive nearly a year ago, forcing Western countries to send weapons and aid to the government in Kyiv.
Speaking in Volgograd – the modern name for Stalingrad – Mr Putin hinted that he might try to move beyond conventional weapons.
“Those who hope to defeat Russia on the battlefield don’t understand, it seems, that a modern war with Russia will be very different for them,” the 70-year-old leader said. “We are not sending our tanks to their borders, but we have the means to respond. It will not be limited to the use of armored hardware. Everyone should understand that.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to elaborate on Mr Putin’s comments but told reporters that “as new weapons are provided by the collective West, Russia will make greater use of its ability to respond”. .
Mr Putin was in Volgograd to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II at the Battle of Stalingrad, in which the Soviet Army captured around 91,000 German soldiers at a turning point in the war.
More than a million people were killed in the fighting – the bloodiest episode of the conflict.
Volgograd was temporarily renamed Stalingrad for the day to mark his birthday and a new statue of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was unveiled earlier this week.
Stalin – who led the Soviet Union between 1924 and his death in 1953 – was accused of masterminding the famine in Ukraine between 1932-33.
The event – dubbed the Holodomor by Ukrainians – killed an estimated five million people and was recognized as genocide in Bulgaria earlier this week.
During the war in Ukraine, Mr Putin has falsely tried to portray Russia’s invasion as a war against nationalists and Nazis – who he says are leading the Kyiv government.
And he returned to the subject of his whole speech.
He said, “Now, unfortunately, we see that the ideology of Nazism, already in its modern form, in its modern manifestation, is once again posing a direct threat to the security of our country. “
“Again and again we must repel the aggression of the collective West.”
But he vowed that while it was “unbelievable but true” that Russia was again threatened by German tanks, Moscow had an answer to any country that threatened it.
Berlin has agreed to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, offering 5 million rubles (£58,250) to the first Russian soldier to destroy or capture Russian company Fores – an energy industry firm based in the Urals. What are you willing to do?
Mr Putin also laid flowers at the grave of a Soviet marshal overseeing the city’s defenses and visited the main memorial complex where he held a moment of silence for the war dead.
Meanwhile, thousands of Volgograd residents lined the streets of the city to watch the military parade.
As airplanes roared overhead, modern and World War II era tanks rolled through the city center. Some modern vehicles were marked with the letter Z, which has become a symbol of Russian aggression.
Local media reported that regional governor Andrei Bucharov – who accompanied Mr Putin to the memorial complex – was not at the parade. He had not been seen since January 24, leading to speculation that he was isolating before meeting the president.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was preparing to take “revenge” against the West for helping Ukraine.
“Now Russia is concentrating its forces. We all know that. It is preparing to try to retaliate, not only against Ukraine, but against a free Europe and the free world,” Mr. Zelensky said in Kyiv. Is.”
Speaking alongside EU Commission President Ursula van der Leyen, Mr Zelenskiy said Russia was “stepping up the pace of adaptation to sanctions” and urged the EU leader to impose additional sanctions on the Russian economy. .
Later, speaking via video link to a national prayer breakfast in the US, Mr Zelensky thanked US President Joe Biden for his support and set Ukrainian forces a target of defeating a Russian invasion next year.
“We must do all we can together so that next year – on the first Thursday of February – we can only pray with thanksgiving for the deliverance from evil,” Mr Zielinski said.
