His pitch that the West is conspiring against Russia has been a recurring theme in Putin’s effort to tamp down anti-war dissent.
“There will be Muscovites, Uralians and others,” he said of Russia’s possible fragmentation into regional groupings. The West could only partly accept Russia into the so-called “family of civilized peoples,” breaking the country into separate pieces, he theorized.
Putin also said Russia suspended participation last week in the New START nuclear treaty not only because of U.S. nuclear capabilities but those of other NATO countries. He said Russia can’t accept U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites while Washington and NATO allies seek Russia’s defeat in Ukraine. But he reiterated that Moscow was not withdrawing from the pact, and his Foreign Ministry said Moscow would respect the treaty caps on nuclear weapons and continue notifying the United States about test launches of ballistic missiles.
The lack of reports about drones launching attacks in Ukraine since mid-February probably indicates the Russians have run out of the Iranian-made weapons, though they’ll likely order more, the British Defense Ministry said in an update.
The drones were initially effective at damaging civilian infrastructure, but the Ukrainians became more adept at shooting them down, including at least 24 between late January and early February, the ministry said.
