A fuel truck delivers fuel at a gas station in Moscow on June 24. MIKHAIL VOSKRESENSKIY/SPUTNIK
MOSCOW/KYIV — The country is under severe and unparalleled pressure from Western nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Sunday.
"Russia is facing harsh, unprecedented pressure from Western elites. Unable to deliver a strategic defeat or battlefield victory against Russia, these forces have sought to destabilize its political landscape and stoke internal unrest, yet all such attempts have ended in failure," Putin stated at the plenary session of the 23rd Congress of the United Russia party.
He stressed that Ukraine has been weaponized as a "battering ram" in the West's confrontation with Russia, with blatant disregard for the Ukrainian people.
Putin pointed out that the West deliberately turns a blind eye to Kyiv's strikes on civilian populations and infrastructure. Despite these blatant provocations, the West continues to impose new, illegitimate sanctions exclusively targeting Russia, he said.
