Monday 9 May 2022 10:32 PM US slams Putin's 'absurd' Victory Day speech: Psaki says he is 'perverting ... trends now
The US government is criticizing Vladimir Putin's claim that his war on Ukraine is 'defensive' as Moscow celebrates its World War II victory over Nazi Germany on its May 9 Victory Day celebration.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki accused Putin of 'perverting history' in his speech holding up Russia's military even as the western world accuses the Eastern European nation of perpetrating war crimes in slaughtering thousands of civilians during its brutal invasion.
State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters it was 'patently absurd' for Russia's autocrat leader to say his operation in Ukraine was not an aggressive attack.
Meanwhile his counterpart at the Pentagon tore into the Russian government's accusations that Ukraine's government is run by Nazis.
'You know who's in Ukraine? Ukrainians. Not Nazis,' Defense Department press secretary John Kirby told reporters on Monday.
It comes as Putin attempted to cast his bloody war in a positive light during the Kremlin's Victory Day celebration in the Red Square, during which the nation honors the 27 million lives lost by the Soviet Union during World War II.
'You are fighting for the Motherland, for its future, so that no one will forget the lessons of World War Two. So that there is no place in the world for hangmen, executioners and Nazis,' Putin addressed the assembled crowd.
Asked about Putin's comments at a State Department press briefing, Price refused to 'respond directly to something that is so ahistorical, something that is so divorced from reality.'
Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on during the Victory Day military parade marking the 77th anniversary of the end of World War II in Moscow, Russia, Monday, May 9
The autocrat leader told his troops and supporters that Russia was once again fighting Nazism - a claim that's been widely panned by the West
'It's an opportunity for us to be clear about the facts and the reality. Contrary to what we heard today in Moscow, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a brutal war of choice. It was unprovoked, it was unjustified, it was premeditated and it has brought catastrophic loss of life across Ukraine,' he said.
Price again accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine, including the recent bombing of a school in eastern Ukraine, which is still under Moscow's occupation.
'To call this a defensive action is patently absurd,' he said. 'To call this anything other than a premeditated war of choice ... is an affront to the historical record,' he said.
Putin told his troops and supporters at Wednesday's celebration that they were fighting 'a threat that was absolutely unacceptable to us (that) has been methodically created next to our borders.'
'The danger was rising by the day,' he claimed, adding that 'Russia has given a preemptive response to an aggression' in what he described as a 'forced, timely and the only correct decision by a sovereign, powerful and independent country.'
The Russian leader has repeatedly accused Ukraine of harboring aggressive intentions, with support from the U.S. and its allies — claims Ukrainian and Western officials have denied.
