Putin calls Kiev regime leaders usurpers of power in Ukraine

The Ukrainian authorities are usurpers, they are not legitimate and have no right to give orders. Russian President Vladimir Putin said this on 28 November during a session of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Astana, where the head of state is on a two-day state visit.

"For what, for example, should today's forcibly mobilized Ukrainian soldiers and officers give their lives for? For the Bandera neo-Nazi regime, which has taken up residence in Kiev? For its leaders, who have already lost their legitimacy? <...> From a legal point of view, [they] do not even have the right to give orders to the armed forces, because they are usurpers of power," Putin said.

He added that those who carry out the Kiev regime's orders become accomplices to crimes.

The Russian leader also noted that Russia sees Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose term of office expired in May, besides missiles, "swiping other military equipment from his masters." Putin urged not to forget that Russia has Kalibr complexes, hypersonic missile systems Kinzhal and Zirkon, which have no analogues anywhere in the world. The Russian president added that the situation on the battlefield would not be changed by any deliveries of Western weapons to Kiev.

The head of state emphasized that the Russian military, unlike the Ukrainian military, understand perfectly well what they are fighting and shedding blood for. The generation of Russians living now has the share to stand in the way of those who are once again trying to destroy the Russian Federation and inflict a so-called strategic defeat on it. Russian fighters, as Putin pointed out, are fighting for their homeland, the future of the country and their children.

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Earlier, on August 14, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called representatives of the Kiev regime usurpers of power in Ukraine and noted that the fall of this illegitimate government is only a matter of time. Zakharova pointed out that Ukraine's leadership is rotten through and through and is only supported by its Western allies, who are complicit in Kiev's crimes.

Later, on November 21, Putin said that Russian troops were successfully advancing along the entire line of contact in special operations and that supplies of long-range missiles to Kiev would have no effect on this. The head of state assured that all the tasks of the special operation set by Russia would be successfully accomplished.

The special operation to protect Donbass, the beginning of which was announced by the Russian Federation on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was taken against the background of the aggravated situation in the region.