Contrasting New 12 months speeches from Putin and Zelenskiy – The Irish Instances

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy honoured his individuals’s resilience in occasions of bloodshed in an extended and lyrical New 12 months speech, whereas Russian chief Vladimir Putin careworn his nation’s unity in a brief and stern message that made solely passing reference to the conflict.

The speeches got here as each international locations marked the tip of the yr with elevated air assaults on one another’s territories. However neither aspect can level to any main frontline achievements in 2023.

“The key results of the yr, its foremost achievement: Ukraine has grow to be stronger,” Mr Zelenskiy mentioned in a televised deal with interspersed with footage of cities beneath assault and conferences with leaders of Ukraine’s Western allies. Mentioning “conflict” 14 occasions in his 20-minute message, he additionally vowed, identical to a yr in the past, {that a} free Ukraine would prevail.

Feedback by Mr Putin, who faces an election in March, supplied a pointy distinction to these of Mr Zelenskiy and likewise to his personal speech final yr, when he forged the conflict as a near-existential combat. This yr, he known as Russia’s troopers “our heroes,” however didn’t point out Ukraine by identify and didn’t seek advice from the “particular army operation” – his time period for the conflict his invasion unleashed in February 2022.

Neither Mr Putin nor Mr Zelenskiy referred to the 1,000km entrance line the place Kyiv’s counteroffensive had little success and the place Moscow has been pushing on with its most up-to-date however sluggish offensive alongside the japanese flank aiming to take management of extra Ukrainian territory.

Reuters

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024