{"id":1389681,"date":"2022-03-18T23:12:11","date_gmt":"2022-03-19T03:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1389681"},"modified":"2022-03-19T11:14:53","modified_gmt":"2022-03-19T15:14:53","slug":"vladimir-putin-accuses-ukraine-of-genocide-in-packed-stadium-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/vladimir-putin-accuses-ukraine-of-genocide-in-packed-stadium-rally\/","title":{"rendered":"Vladimir Putin Accuses Ukraine of &#039;Genocide&#039; in Packed Stadium Rally"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fvladimir-putin-accuses-ukraine-of-genocide-in-packed-stadium-rally%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1389681&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">Russian President Vladimir Putin <a href=\"http:\/\/kremlin.ru\/events\/president\/news\/68016\">hosted<\/a> a rally at Moscow\u2019s Luzhniki Stadium on Friday to mark the eighth anniversary of Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea, Ukraine, the Kremlin\u2019s official presidential press service reported.<\/p>\n<p>Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, seizing the Crimean Peninsula and occupying it for the past eight years. That year also marked the beginning of a conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region that escalated into a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Video footage of the March 18 event showed what appeared to be a packed venue, meaning tens of thousands of people attended the rally as\u00a0Luzhniki Stadium has a capacity of 81,000.<\/p>\n[embedded content]\n<p>Putin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=crviTauRRDQ\">addressed<\/a> the massive crowd from a platform in the stadium\u2019s center, explaining he organized the gathering to coincide with\u00a0Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine on March 18, 2014.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cOn our land, united by a common destiny \u2014 this is what people probably thought and were guided by when they went to the referendum in Crimea and Sevastopol on March 18, 2014. They lived and live on their own land and wanted to live a common destiny with their historical homeland \u2014 with Russia. They had every right to do so and achieved their goal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Putin detailed Moscow\u2019s reasoning for <a href=\"https:\/\/tass.com\/politics\/1015999\">annexing<\/a> Crimea \u2014 a peninsula connected to southern Ukraine along the Black Sea\u2019s northern coast \u2014 in 2014. He reiterated previous claims by the Kremlin that the peninsula\u2019s Russian population suffered from anti-Russian persecution by extreme Ukrainian nationalists and \u201cneo-Nazis.\u201d Russia claims that Crimeans chose to become part of Russia through a referendum; much of the free world <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/interview\/why-crimean-referendum-illegitimate\">rejected<\/a> the referendum as occurring under duress and illegitimate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact is that the Crimeans and Sevastopol residents did the right thing when they put a hard barrier in the way of neo-Nazis and extreme nationalists. Because what happened in other territories and is still happening is the best confirmation of this,\u201d the Russian president said. Putin has repeatedly claimed since the military escalation in February that Ukraine\u2019s government \u2014 whose president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish \u2014 is run by \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2022\/02\/24\/how-can-i-be-a-nazi-zelenskyys-direct-appeal-to-russians-before-ukraine-attack\/\">Nazis<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He then referenced an alleged \u201ccoup d\u2019\u00e9tat\u201d Moscow claims was carried out in Ukraine in early 2014 with support from the U.S. government. The development saw Ukraine\u2019s Russian-backed president at the time, Viktor Yanukovych, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Ukraine\/The-Maidan-protest-movement\">flee<\/a>\u00a0the country after months of protests in the heart of Kyiv objecting to his attempts to distance Ukraine from Europe and the greater West. The president who succeeded Yanukovych, Petro Poroshenko, lost to Zelensky in a free and fair election in 2019, but the Russian government insists on branding Zelensky\u2019s administration an illegitimate extension of the alleged \u201ccoup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople who lived and live in the Donbas also did not agree with this coup d\u2019\u00e9tat,\u201d Putin recalled on March 18 during his stadium rally in Moscow.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_20261711\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/03\/wi\/afp\/18\/president-vladimir-putin-spoke-at-concert-marking-eighth-anniversary-of-russia-annexation-of-crimea.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a concert marking the eighth anniversary of Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow on March 18, 2022. (Photo by RAMIL SITDIKOV\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cPunitive military operations were immediately organized against them, and not one, they were immediately plunged into a blockade, subjected to systematic shelling from cannons, air strikes \u2014 this is all what is called \u2018genocide,&#8217;\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is to save people from this suffering, from this genocide \u2014 this is the main, main reason, motive and goal of the military operation that we launched in the Donbass and Ukraine, this is precisely the goal,\u201d the Russian president acknowledged.<\/p>\n<p>Putin referenced Russia\u2019s latest war with Ukraine, which he describes as a \u201cspecial military operation.\u201d Moscow <a href=\"https:\/\/tass.com\/politics\/1409329\">launched<\/a> an air and ground offensive in neighboring Ukraine\u00a0on February 24. The conflict began just 72 hours after the Kremlin announced plans to formally <a href=\"https:\/\/tass.com\/politics\/1407581\">recognize<\/a> the independence of two Russian-backed separatist states in eastern Ukraine\u2019s Donbas region known as the Donetsk and Luhansk People\u2019s Republics (DPR and LPR).<\/p>\n<p>The optics of Putin\u2019s event, which appears to indicate widespread support for his actions in Ukraine, follow weeks of nationwide protests against the war. Russian security forces have reportedly\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/news\/russia-continues-to-arrest-protesters-against-ukraine-invasion\/\">arrested<\/a> over 14,000 people for protesting since February 24 after assemblies occurred in Russia\u2019s largest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg. Russia\u2019s parliament adopted and put into force two new laws on March 4 that\u00a0\u201ccriminalize independent war reporting and protesting the war [with Ukraine], with penalties of up to 15 years in prison,\u201d Human Rights Watch <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2022\/03\/07\/russia-criminalizes-independent-war-reporting-anti-war-protests\">reported<\/a> on March 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted a rally at Moscow\u2019s Luzhniki Stadium on Friday to mark the eighth anniversary of Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea, Ukraine, the Kremlin\u2019s official presidential press service<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1389681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1389681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1389681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1389681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1389681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}