Shoulder to shoulder: Putin praises Russian troops in mega present of energy in Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared at an enormous flag-waving rally at a Moscow stadium and praised his nation’s troops in biblical phrases Friday as they pressed their deadly assaults on Ukrainian cities with shelling and missiles.

“Shoulder to shoulder, they help and support each other,” Putin stated of Moscow’s forces in a uncommon public look because the invasion three weeks in the past that made Russia an outcast amongst nations and triggered antiwar protests at residence.

“We have not had unity like this for a long time,” he added to cheers from the gang.

Moscow police stated greater than 200,000 individuals have been in and across the Luzhniki stadium for the celebration marking the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, seized from Ukraine.

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The occasion included patriotic songs, together with a efficiency of “Made in the USSR,” with the opening traces “Ukraine and Crimea, Belarus and Moldova, it’s all my country.”

Seeking to painting the warfare as simply, Putin paraphrased the Bible to say of Russia’s troops: “There isn’t any better love than giving up one’s soul for one’s associates.”

And he continued to insist his actions have been obligatory to forestall “genocide,” a declare flatly denied by leaders across the globe.

Standing on stage in a white turtleneck and a blue down jacket, Putin spoke for about 5 minutes. Some individuals, together with presenters on the occasion, wore T-shirts or jackets with a “Z” — a logo seen on Russian tanks and different army automobiles in Ukraine and embraced by supporters of the warfare.

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His quoting of the Bible and a Russian admiral of the 18th century mirrored his growing focus lately on historical past and faith as binding forces in Russia’s post-Soviet society.

Video feeds of the occasion confirmed a loudly cheering, flag-waving crowd that broke into chants of “Russia!”

Several Telegram channels vital of the Kremlin reported that college students and workers of state establishments in a variety of areas have been ordered by their superiors to attend rallies and live shows marking the Crimea anniversary. Those studies couldn’t be independently verified.

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In the wake of the invasion, the Kremlin has cracked down more durable on dissent and the move of data, arresting hundreds of antiwar protesters, banning websites equivalent to Facebook and Twitter, and instituting powerful jail sentences for what’s deemed to be false reporting on the warfare, which Moscow refers to as a “special military operation.”

The OVD-Info rights group that displays political arrests reported that not less than seven impartial journalists had been detained forward of or whereas overlaying the anniversary occasions in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The rally got here as Russian troops continued to pound the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and launched a barrage of missiles on the outskirts of the western metropolis of Lviv.

The early morning assault on Lviv’s edge was the closest strike but to the centre of town, which has develop into a crossroads for individuals fleeing from different elements of Ukraine and for others getting into to ship assist or battle.

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