MOSCOW, Jan 18 (Portal) – President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia’s powerful military-industrial complex is ramping up production and is one of the main reasons his country will prevail in Ukraine.
Speaking to workers at a St. Petersburg factory that makes air defense systems, Putin said overall production of military equipment is increasing despite growing demand for what he calls Russia’s “military special operation” in Ukraine.
“To achieve the final result and inevitable victory, there are several things … It is the unity and cohesion of the Russian and multinational Russian people, the courage and heroism of our fighters … and, of course, the work of the military-industrial Complex and factories like yours and people like you,” Putin said.
“Victory is certain, I have no doubt about that.”
Putin said Russian defense companies are making about the same number of anti-aircraft missiles as the rest of the world combined and three times more than the United States.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with local residents, veterans and representatives of civil society organizations marking the 80th anniversary of a breakthrough in the Siege of Leningrad during World War II at the State Memorial Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad in Saint Petersburg, Russia, January 18 2023. Sputnik/Ilya Pitalyov/Pool via Portal
He had previously attended an event with veterans to mark the 80th anniversary of the lifting of the World War II siege of his hometown, then known as Leningrad, which Nazi German forces had blocked for almost 900 days.
He told the veterans that Russia was fighting in Ukraine to defend ethnic Russians and Russian speakers, who Moscow says are being systematically discriminated against in Ukraine.
Kyiv denies the accusation, saying Moscow is using it as a pretext for a naked colonial-style land grab.
“What we are doing today, including our special operation, is an attempt to end this war and protect our people living in these areas,” Putin said.
“These are our historical territories,” he said, indicating that much of what is now Ukraine was once part of the Russian Empire.
Born in Leningrad in 1952, Putin began his foreign intelligence career in the city with the Soviet KGB. He later held positions in the city administration while his political mentor, Anatoly Sobchak, was the mayor.
Portal reporting; writing by Andrew Osborn; Edited by Kevin Liffey and Gareth Jones
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