Vladimir Putin claimed on Thursday that Russia was "again" threatened by German tanks, a reference to the tanks promised by Berlin to kyiv, drawing a new parallel between the war against Hitler and his offensive in Ukraine.
"It's unbelievable, but German Leopard tanks, with crosses drawn on them, are threatening us again," the Russian president said in Volgograd (ex-Stalingrad) during celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Soviet Union. German army in Stalingrad, adding that Russia had "what to answer" to countries that threaten it.
Same reaction from the Kremlin. "When new weapons supplied by the 'collective West' appear, Russia will make full use of its existing potential to respond" to these deliveries, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Since the beginning of the offensive he launched in Ukraine on February 24, Vladimir Putin has assured that the political leaders in power in kyiv are "neo-Nazis" at the origin of a "genocide" of the Russian-speaking populations of this neighboring country. With the green light from Berlin, several Western countries recently promised to deliver German-made Leopard 2 heavy tanks to kyiv.
"Those who drag European countries, including Germany, into a new war against Russia and irresponsibly present this as a fait accompli and those who expect to defeat Russia on the battlefield obviously do not understand that 'a contemporary war with Russia will be completely different,' Putin warned.
"We are not sending our tanks to their borders, but we have something to respond to them and it will not be limited to the use of armored vehicles," he continued.
