Vladimir Putin’s 2023 is probably not as fun as he imagined that it would be. He likely planned on instantly winning after invading Ukraine and then retiring to his pickle hideout for a little R&R after a whirl on his cosmetology train. Instead, this war has dragged forth with Ukraine putting up a remarkable and protracted display of resistance.
What really might be the losing battle, however, is that Russia’s ruble tanked hard in recent weeks, and Putin might very well lose his longtime position when all is said and done. In the meantime, however, the Russian president has decided that he would really like to tie up this war, which he is somehow blaming on the West due to NATO expansion. He really said that to the BRICS summit, via CNBC:
“Our actions in Ukraine are dictated by only one thing — to end the war that was unleashed by the West and its satellites against the people who live in the Donbas,” Putin said, referring to the eastern part of Ukraine where Russian proxies have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.
“I want to note that it was the desire to maintain their hegemony in the world, the desire of some countries to maintain this hegemony that led to the severe crisis in Ukraine,” he added.
This happened shortly after a drone attack hit Moscow skyscrapers, and from the BBC, Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelensky has declared that his nation will reclaim Crimea, nearly a decade after Russian annexation. It sounds like, as the kids say, Putin has f*cked around, and maybe, just maybe, he’s finding out.
Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/putin-blame-ukraine-war/