Путин сигнализирует о приближении завершения конфликта России и Украины на фоне сокращенного парада в День Победы

"...the most serious crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis..."

"...many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war..."

"...Putin has repeatedly vowed to fight on until all of Russia's various war aims are achieved..."

"...Putin blamed 'globalist' Western leaders..."

"...saying they promised NATO would not expand eastward after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall..."

"...but then tried to draw Ukraine into the European Union's orbit..."

"...Russian troops have been fighting in Ukraine for well over four years..."

"...That is longer than Soviet forces fought in World War Two..."

"...known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45..."

"...Putin faces a wave of anxiety in Moscow about the war in Ukraine..."

"...which has killed hundreds of thousands of people..."

"...left swathes of Ukraine in ruins..."

"...and drained Russia's $3 trillion economy..."

"...Russia's relations with Europe are worse than at any time since the depths of the Cold War..."

"...Russian forces have so far been unable to take the whole of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine..."

"...where Kyiv's forces have been pushed back to a line of fortress cities..."

"...Russian advances have slowed this year..."

"...though Moscow controls just under one fifth of Ukrainian territory..."

"...Putin, who has ruled Russia as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999..."

"...European leaders have said Russia must be defeated in Ukraine..."

"...and cast Putin as a war criminal and autocrat..."

"...who they say could one day attack a NATO member if he is allowed to win the war..."

"...Russia dismisses such claims as nonsense..."

"...Putin, who ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022..."

"...casts European powers as warmongers for supporting Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars in support, weapons and intelligence..."