Last Update: February 22, 2023, 23:21 IST
Putin also praised Russian soldiers in Ukraine who are fighting with heroism, courage and bravery: We are proud of them. (File photo: Reuters)
Ukraine accuses Russia of abducting thousands of Ukrainian children from territories under its control, a charge Moscow denies, insisting it organizes adoptions legally
President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia was fighting for its “historic” land in Ukraine, at a state-organized patriotic rally in Moscow in support of the Ukraine attack.
“I just heard from the country’s top military leadership that there is a fight going on for our historical land, for our people,” Putin said.
In a brief address to thousands gathered at Moscow’s main Luzhniki stadium, Putin also praised Russian soldiers in Ukraine who are “fighting heroically, courageously, bravely: we are proud of them”.
He said that all those who supported the Russian army were “to some extent also defenders of the fatherland”.
“This includes health workers, defense and transport sector workers … and all of you who have come to support our fighters today.”
Spectators flock to watch patriotic displays and speeches, waving Russian flags, braving the freezing winter temperature of −15 °C (5 °F).
Among them was Ulyana, a 47-year-old lawyer who told AFP she had come “for our president, our people who are defending our country”.
“What is happening now, the consolidation of national unity, reminds us of the Great Patriotic War,” she said, using the Russian word World war II
– ‘Great Patriotic War’ –
The concert, called “Glory to the Defenders of the Fatherland”, was held on the eve of the eponymous Russian public holiday and two days before the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
Rock star Grigory Leps opened the show with a song in honor of Russia. Displayed on screens around the stadium were images of the “The Motherland Calls” statue in the city of Volgograd, the scene of the World War II battle for Stalingrad, as it was then called.
Putin, in what he described as special military operations in Ukraine, argued that the treatment of Russian speakers there was comparable with the actions of Nazi Germany.
As the offensive dragged on, the Kremlin whipped up support by characterizing its campaign as a broader conflict against the West, the equivalent of the “Great Patriotic War” against Nazi Germany.
Also present in the crowd was Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-appointed leader of the Donetsk region, who reiterated Moscow’s claims of “Nazi ideology” in the Ukrainian government.
“The West is an accomplice of (Ukrainian) war crimes,” Pushilin said.
Organizers brought children from the Ukrainian Donbass to the stage, including from Mariupol, the port city of Donetsk, which had been devastated by a long siege before being captured by Russia.
Ukraine has accused Russia of abducting thousands of Ukrainian children from territories under its control, a charge Moscow denies, insisting it organizes legal adoptions.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)