(ANSA) - ROME, DECEMBER 31 - "The West lied about peace while it was preparing for aggression and is now admitting it openly, without hesitation. And it is cynically using Ukraine and its people to weaken and divide Russia": Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his New Year's address to the nation.
"We have never allowed anyone to do this and we never will," Putin stressed, writes the Tass news agency.
"The fate of Russia is a priority - he added - and" it depends only on the will of the Russians ". The message was recorded in a military base in Kamchatka, where the New Year has already arrived.
"Moral and historical correctness is on our side," he added.
According to the tsar, the past year was full of "truly decisive and important events" which "lay the foundations (...) for our true independence".
"This is what we are fighting for today, to protect our people in our historical territories, in the new constituent entities of Russia," he said, referring to the Ukrainian regions that Russia claims to have annexed.
(HANDLE).