Discourse´s comments – Pablo González

According to a translation I found in La Sexta, the literal version of Putin’s speech is as follows. I have highlighted in yellow the pairs that have caught my attention, and I have included in red my comments.

The subject of this speech is the current situation in the Donbas (From the very beginning, he focuses his goals, which he will later repeat a lot. Earlier the goals were not officialized) and the course of [Russia’s] special military operation to liberate this region from the neo-Nazi regime, which seized power in Ukraine in 2014 as a result of an armed coup (Also from the very beginning, he makes it clear that the War started in 2014 as an armed coup, and it was started by others). Today I am addressing all of you, all citizens of our country, people of different generations, ages and ethnicities, people of our great homeland, all those who are united by the great historical Russia, soldiers, officers and volunteers who are fighting at the front and fulfilling their combat duties, our brothers and sisters from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and from the Kherson and Zaporiyia regions and other areas that have already been liberated from the neo-Nazi regime. (Please be more specific about your goals)

The issue concerns the necessary and imperative measures to protect Russia’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, and the support, desire and will of our compatriots to decide their future independently; also from the aggressive policy of some Western elites, who are doing everything possible to preserve their domination and, with this goal in mind, trying to block and suppress any point of independent and sovereign development in order to continue to aggressively force and impose their pseudo-values on other countries and nations. (The West does not let them be free to do things their way, and Putin does not like Western values).

The aim of this part of the West is to weaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country. They are now openly saying that in 1991 they succeeded in dividing the Soviet Union and that it is time to do the same with Russia, which should be divided into numerous regions that would be in mortal enmity with each other. (Of course, Putin does not consider himself anything close to the West. The possibility that Russia would end up as part of the West, albeit with his personality, is completely ruled out).

They [the West] came up with these plans a long time ago. They have encouraged international terrorist groups from the Caucasus and moved offensive NATO infrastructures close to our borders. They have used indiscriminate Russophobia as a weapon, including fueling hatred of Russia for decades, first in Ukraine, designed to become a ‘bridgehead’ against Russia(Ukraine has long been guilty). They have turned the Ukrainian people into cannon fodder, pushed them into a war with Russia, which they unleashed in 2014(He uses the word war for the first time, and repeats that they started it in 2014. He is defending himself in the annexed territories, which are clearly Russian in his view). They have used the army against the civilian population and have organized genocide, blockade and terror against those who refused to recognize the government that was created in Ukraine as a result of a coup d’état.

After the Kiev regime publicly refused to resolve the Donbas issue peacefully and even went so far as to announce its ambition to possess nuclear weapons, it became clear that a new offensive in the Donbas, where there had been two others before, was inevitable, and that [this offensive] would inevitably be followed by an attack on Russian Crimea, i.e. Russia. In this sense, the decision to launch a preemptive military operation was necessary and was the only option. The main goal of this operation, which is to liberate the entire Donbas, remains the same.

The Lugansk People’s Republic has already been almost completely liberated from neo-Nazis. The fighting in the Donetsk People’s Republic continues. For the past eight years, the Kiev occupation regime has created a deeply layered line of permanent defenses. A frontal attack against them would have resulted in considerable losses, which is why our units, as well as the forces of the Donbass republics, are acting competently and systematically, using military equipment and saving lives, taking steps forward to liberate the Donbas, purging cities and towns from the neo-Nazis and helping the people whom the Kiev regime has turned into hostages and human shields.

As you already know, the professional military personnel recruited are part of the special military operation. Alongside them are fighting volunteer units, people of different ethnicities, professions and ages who are true patriots. They have answered the call of their hearts to rise up in defense of Russia and the Donbas. (He makes an ode to the patriots, looking for more to emerge).

In this regard, I have already issued instructions to the Government and the Ministry of Defense to determine the legal status of volunteers and personnel of the military units of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. It should be the same as the status of military professionals of the Russian Army, including material, social and medical benefits. Special attention should be paid to the organization of the supply of military and any other equipment to the volunteer units and the Donbas people’s militias. (The patriots will be well taken care of).

While acting to achieve the main objectives of defending the Donbas, according to the plans and decisions of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff, our soldiers have liberated considerable areas in Kherson and Zaporiyia, as well as different others. This has created a prolonged line of contact of more than a thousand kilometers in length (our successes are great already).

This is what I would like to make public for the first time today: after the special military operation (implicitly, it is terminated. Now we are in another phase), in particular after the Istanbul talks, the representatives of Kievo have expressed a rather positive response to our proposals. These proposals referred, primarily, to ensuring Russia’s security and interests. But a peaceful settlement obviously did not suit the West, which is why, after certain compromises were coordinated, Kiev has ordered to ruin all these agreements. (I have tried to do it by hook or crook, but they have forced me to do it by crook. Also, thanks to Istanbul for collaborating in the attempt: you are not our enemy).

More weapons have been ‘pumped’ into Ukraine. The Kiev regime has brought into play new groups of foreign nationalists and mercenaries, military units following NATO standards and taking orders from Western advisors. (We are not fighting not against Ukraine, but with NATO covertly, which is somewhat true) At the same time, the regime of reprisals across Ukraine against its own citizens, established immediately after the armed coup in 2014, has been harshly intensified. The policy of intimidation, terror and violence is taking increasingly massive, horrific and barbaric forms.

I would like to emphasize the following: we know that the majority of the population living in these territories liberated from the neo-Nazis, which are mainly historical territories of Novorossiya*, do not want to live under the yoke of the neo-Nazi regime. The peoples of the Zaporiyia and Kherson regions of Lugansk and Donetsk have now seen and are seeing the atrocities perpetrated by the neo-Nazis from the occupied areas in areas of Kharkov. Descendants of the ‘banderites’ [members of the Ukrainian Nazi organization of Stepan Bandera] (It relies on old bad memories) and members of Nazi punitive expeditions are killing, torturing and putting people in jail, settling scores, beating and committing outrages on peaceful civilians.

There have been more than 7.5 million people living in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and in the Zaporiyia and Kherson regions before the outbreak of hostilities. Many of them have been forced to become refugees and leave their homes. Those who have been able to stay, some five million, are now exposed to artillery and missiles launched by neo-Nazi militiamen who fire on hospitals and schools and organize terrorist attacks on peaceful citizens. We cannot, we have no moral right to let our relatives and friends be torn to pieces by butchers; we can only respond to their sincere effort to decide their own future.

The parliaments of the Donbas people’s republics and the civil-military administrations of Kherson and Zaporiyia have made a decision to hold referendums on the future of their territories and have asked Russia to support them. I would like to emphasize that we will do everything necessary to create safe conditions for these referendums to be held, so that the population can express its desire. And we will support the option for the future voted by the majority of the peoples of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporiyia and Kherson (the referendums are legal, and we have an obligation to protect that part of Russia).

Friends,

Today, our Armed Forces, as I have mentioned, are fighting on that 1,000-kilometer-long line of contact, fighting not only against the neo-Nazis but also against the entire collective military machine of the West. In this situation, I consider it necessary to make the following decision, entirely appropriate to the threats we face. More precisely, I consider it necessary to support the proposal of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff on partial mobilization in the Russian Federation, to defend our homeland, its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to ensure the security of our people in the liberated territories (Calling them “liberated territories” speaks volumes. They are not conquests).

As I said, we are talking about partial mobilization (Don’t panic, it is only partial). In other words, only military reservists will be called up, mainly those who have served in the Armed Forces and have specific military occupation experience and knowledge. Before sending to units, those who are called up for active duty will have to undergo, on a mandatory basis, additional training based on special military operation experience. I have already signed an executive order for this mobilization.

In accordance with the legislation, the chambers of the Federal Assembly (the Federation Council and the Duma) will be officially notified about this document today. The mobilization begins today, September 21. I am ordering the heads of the regions to provide the necessary assistance for the work of the military recruitment offices. I would like to point out that Russian citizens called [to active duty] under this order will have the same status, payments and social benefits as all other active military personnel recruited (I will treat the mobilized well).

In addition, the executive order also stipulates additional measures for the fulfillment of the state defense order. Those responsible for the defense industry will be directly responsible for achieving the goals of increasing the production of weapons and military equipment, as well as using additional manufacturing facilities for this purpose. At the same time, the government must address, without delay, all questions of material, resources and economic support for our defense companies (I warn you that I will nationalize everything that is needed. All at the command of Defense).

Friends,

The West has gone too far in its aggressive policy against Russia, sending endless threats to our country and our people. Some irresponsible Western politicians are doing more than just talking about their plans to organize the shipment of long-range offensive weapons to Ukraine, which could be used to carry out attacks in Crimea and other Russian regions. These terrorist attacks, including those [perpetrated] with the use of Western weapons, are being carried out in border areas of the Bolgograd and Kursk regions. NATO is conducting reconnaissance across Russia’s southern regions in ‘real time’ using modern systems, aircraft, ships, satellites and strategic ‘drones’.

Washington, London and Brussels openly encourage Kiev to transfer hostilities to our territory. They openly say that Russia should be defeated on the battlefield by any means and subsequently deprived of political, economic, cultural and any other sovereignty and plundered. They have even resorted to nuclear blackmail: and I am not only referring to the Western-sponsored shelling of Zaporiyia (It was they), which poses a threat of nuclear disaster, but the statements made by some high-ranking representatives of NATO member countries on the possibility and admissibility of the use of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, against Russia.

I would like to remind those who make such statements about Russia that our country also has different types of weapons, some of them even more modern than those that NATO countries have. In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and in order to defend Russia and our people, we will not hesitate to make use of some of the weapons systems at our disposal. This is not a bluff.

The citizens of Russia can rest assured that the territorial integrity of our homeland, our independence and our freedom will be defended, and I repeat, by all means at our disposal. Those who use nuclear blackmail against us should know that the direction of the wind can change. It is our historical tradition and destiny of our country to stop those who are interested in global domination and threaten to divide and enslave our homeland. (Our history of successful defense supports us.) Rest assured that we will do so this time as well.