V. Putin _ Address of the President of Russia _ Sept21, 2022 - Eng subs **,full text in Description

Dear friends!

The topic of my speech is the situation in Donbas and the course of a special military operation to liberate it from the neo–Nazi regime that seized power in Ukraine in 2014 as a result of an armed coup.

I am addressing you today: to all citizens of our country, to people of different generations, ages and nationalities, to the people of our great Motherland, to all who are united by a great historical Russia, to soldiers and officers, volunteers who are now fighting on the front line, are at a combat post, to our brothers and sisters – residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, other areas liberated from the neo-Nazi regime.

We will talk about the necessary, urgent steps to protect the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Russia, about supporting the aspirations and will of our compatriots to determine their own future, and about the aggressive policy of some Western elites who are striving to preserve their dominance with all their might, and for this they are trying to block, suppress any sovereign independent development centers in order to continue it is rude to impose your will on other countries and peoples, to impose your pseudo-values.

The goal of this West is to weaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country. They are already directly saying that in 1991 they were able to split the Soviet Union, and now it's time for Russia itself that it should break up into many deadly warring regions and regions.

And they have been hatching such plans for a long time. They encouraged gangs of international terrorists in the Caucasus, promoted the offensive infrastructure of NATO close to our borders. They have made total Russophobia their weapon, including for decades purposefully nurtured hatred of Russia, primarily in Ukraine, which they were preparing for the fate of an anti–Russian springboard, and the Ukrainian people themselves were turned into cannon fodder and pushed to war with our country, unleashing it – this war - back in 2014, using the armed forces against by organizing genocide, blockade, terror against people who refused to recognize the power that arose in Ukraine as a result of the coup.

And after the current Kiev regime actually publicly refused a peaceful solution to the Donbass problem and, moreover, declared its claims to nuclear weapons, it became absolutely clear that a new regular, as it has been twice before, a large-scale offensive on Donbass is inevitable. And then, just as inevitably, an attack on the Russian Crimea would follow – on Russia.

In this regard, the decision on a pre-emptive military operation was absolutely necessary and the only possible one. Its main goals – the liberation of the entire territory of Donbass – have been and remain unchanged.

The Luhansk People's Republic has already been almost completely cleared of neo-Nazis. The fighting in the Donetsk People's Republic continues. Here, for eight years, the Kiev occupation regime has created a deeply echeloned line of long-term fortifications. Their assault head-on would have resulted in heavy losses, so our units, as well as military units of the republics of Donbass, act systematically, competently, use equipment, take care of personnel and step by step liberate Donetsk land, clear cities and towns of neo-Nazis, provide assistance to people whom the Kiev regime has turned into hostages, into a human shield.

As you know, professional military personnel serving under contract take part in a special military operation. Volunteer formations are also fighting shoulder to shoulder with them: people of different nationalities, professions, ages are real patriots. They stood up for Russia and Donbass at the call of their hearts.

In this regard, I have already given instructions to the Government and the Ministry of Defense in full and in the shortest possible time to determine the legal status of volunteers, as well as fighters of units of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. It should be the same as that of regular servicemen of the Russian army, including material, medical support, social guarantees. Special attention should be paid to the organization of the supply of volunteer formations and detachments of the People's militia of Donbass with equipment and equipment.

In the course of solving the main tasks of protecting Donbass, our troops, based on the plans and decisions of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff on the general strategy of action, liberated from neo-Nazis and significant territories of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, a number of other areas. As a result, an extended line of combat contact was formed, which is over a thousand kilometers.

What I want to say publicly for the first time today. After the start of the special military operation, including the negotiations in Istanbul, Kiev's representatives reacted very positively to our proposals, and these proposals primarily concerned ensuring Russia's security and our interests. But it is obvious that a peaceful solution did not suit the West, so after reaching certain compromises, Kiev was actually given a direct instruction to disrupt all agreements.

Ukraine began to pump up weapons even more. The Kiev regime has launched new gangs of foreign mercenaries and nationalists, military units trained according to NATO standards and under the actual command of Western advisers.

At the same time, the regime of repression throughout Ukraine against its own citizens, established immediately after the armed coup of 2014, was strengthened in the most severe way. The policy of intimidation, terror, violence is taking more and more massive, terrible, barbaric forms.

I want to emphasize that we know that the majority of people living in the territories liberated from neo-Nazis, and these are primarily the historical lands of Novorossiya, do not want to be under the yoke of the neo-Nazi regime. In Zaporozhye, in the Kherson region, in Lugansk and Donetsk, they have seen and are seeing the atrocities committed by neo-Nazis in the occupied areas of the Kharkiv region. The heirs of Bandera and Nazi punishers kill people, torture, throw them into prison, settle scores, crack down, abuse civilians.

More than seven and a half million people lived in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions before the outbreak of hostilities. Many of them were forced to become refugees, to leave their homes. And those who remained – about five million people – are now being subjected to constant artillery and rocket attacks by neo-Nazi militants. They hit hospitals and schools, organize terrorist acts against civilians.

We cannot, have no moral right to hand over people close to us to the executioners, we cannot but respond to their sincere desire to determine their own fate.