Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday issued a harsh warning to the US and its allies not to provoke or test its military amid rising tensions on the border with Ukraine and the Black Sea.
The Russian leader promised that any country that crossed the “red line” of Moscow on territorial and other issues would “regret its deeds” while delivering his speech on the state of the nation before both houses of parliament.
“I hope no one dares to cross the red line with respect to Russia and we will determine where it stands in each particular case. Those who organize any provocation that threatens our main security interests will regret their actions more than they did not regret anything during a long time, ”the 68-year-old president began.
“We want good relationships and we really don’t want to burn the bridges,” he continued. “But if someone confuses our good intentions of indifference or weakness and intends to burn or even blow up these bridges, Russia’s response will be asymmetrical, quick and hard.”
Putin went on to denounce nations that impose “illegal economic sanctions and political motivation and gross attempts to enforce his will on others,” seeming to refer to the sanctions President Biden put on the Kremlin.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on the warning.
Since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has supported pro-Russian insurgents in neighboring republics, including the strengthening of the allied states of Georgia and Moldova.
Putin presided over the annexation of Crimea in 2014 without Ukraine’s consent to a rare current border change by force.
Deployments of Russian troops are often murky, but it is believed that Putin’s government has deployed troops to Crimea to facilitate the annexation of 2014 and has secretly supported a couple of separatist provinces in the Donbas region, in the is from Ukraine.
The Kremlin has continued to increase its military presence in the region, specifically with its naval ships in the Black Sea.
Biden declared a national emergency in the region last Thursday and sanctioned more than three dozen people in Russia and expelled ten diplomats.
At the same time, he rejected plans to send two U.S. warships to the Black Sea.
Putin’s statements on Wednesday come a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invited Putin to meet with him in the Donbas region for peace talks.
“Mr. Putin, I am ready to go even further and invite you to gather anywhere in the Ukrainian Donbas where the war is going on, “Zelensky said in a 13-minute speech released Tuesday.
“Once, the president of the Russian Federation said,‘ If a fight is inevitable, you have to attack first. ’But in my opinion, today all leaders must understand that a fight cannot be inevitable when we don’t talk. of alleys and thugs, but of a real war and millions of human lives, and unlike a struggle, in a war, all sides lose. “
According to satellite images released this week from Morozovsk air base, news of the invitation to the meeting was reached as the Russian army continues to increase its fighter jets and other equipment.
Images from the scene show 15 fighter jets on the tarmac waiting for orders to head to the border.
With publishing cables