Putin evokes new patriotic war to defend Russia & free Ukraine from Nazi putsch of Maidan
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00:00 The celebrations this year in Moscow, though, overshadowed by Russia's battlefield failures
00:05 in Ukraine and the Kremlin's ongoing confrontation with the West.
00:09 Here's more of what the Russian president had to say.
00:13 The elite in the West, they keep talking of their exceptionalism.
00:20 They are forcing their will on other nations, forcing their rules on others.
00:27 But it would appear that they have forgotten what Nazism was all about.
00:41 Thibaut Pouillet is a former artillery officer and military specialist.
00:45 He joins me now from Lyon.
00:47 Thibaut, thanks so much for taking the time to be with us today.
00:49 Thank you.
00:51 What did you read into Vladimir Putin's speech today?
00:54 Did anything stand out for you as unusual or surprising?
00:57 No, no, it's not.
00:59 It's unsurprising.
01:00 It's above all a policy communication in order to justify for the Russian population the
01:08 justification of the war in Ukraine.
01:12 Putin said it was an aggression of the West, a civilization war, and the Russia needs to
01:21 go to Ukraine in order to defend itself.
01:24 So I think it's above all a policy communication tool.
01:28 And it's not surprising.
01:31 A lot of the pageantry was toned down this year compared to previous years.
01:35 But talk us through the historical importance of this day for Russians and if it is important
01:40 for them still today.
01:41 Yes, yes.
01:42 It's more important in Russia than, for example, in France, because it's not only a day of
01:48 the victory in the Second World War, but it's a victory of the great patriotic war.
01:54 So it is the victory of the Russian will to resist from Nazi, German Nazi, sorry.
02:05 So it's a way to say that Russia is resilient, Russia is stronger than any external pressure.
02:12 So it's a turning point, a turning moment for the national memory each year.
02:18 Do you think that this commemoration against Nazi Germany can be used by Russia, by Russian
02:23 authorities to legitimize what's happening in Ukraine now?
02:27 Yes, because if we remember at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the special military
02:32 operation for Russia, they used the justification of the denazification of Ukrainian government.
02:41 And they always say that is the same thing is a new patriotic war in order to defend
02:47 Russian population, but also European population against the resurgence of Nazi Ukraine.
02:55 And Putin always said that he wants to free the Ukrainian population from the Nazi pooch
03:04 of Maidan.
03:05 So it's a usual rhetoric in the justification of the Ukrainian invasion.
03:11 What do you think about the state of the Russian army at the moment and its strategy and its
03:16 success so far in Ukraine?
03:19 It depends on what you compare.
03:23 If you compare the Russian army now with what it is before the invasion, of course, it's
03:30 a strategic disaster.
03:32 And they have many losses in human forces, but also in materials, weapons.
03:38 But if we look at the evolution of the dynamic of the conflict after the great failure of
03:44 November with the loss of Kyrsantsia, there is a kind of stabilization in the front and
03:53 a low but real progression in Brakhmut and in the Donbass.
03:59 So it depends on what you compare.
04:01 But the problematic of the Russian army now is what you need to prioritize, because there
04:08 is a real dilemma between the will to go to the offensive way and to take the Donbass
04:18 and the problematic on Brakhmut, and in the other way, the need to give some energy, some
04:25 materials to counter the expect offensive of the Ukrainian army soon.
04:32 What do you think about the role of the Wagner group?
04:35 There's been a spotlight really shown on that group in recent days, that mercenary group
04:39 hired by Russia to fight.
04:42 How does it relate to the Russian army and to the war in Ukraine in the moment, especially
04:46 given those quite critical comments of the Kremlin from Wagner's leader?
04:52 During this conflict, we can see that the Wagner group is an opportunity and a problematic,
04:58 an opportunity, an operational opportunity, because it permits to do a critical operation
05:06 with much of attrition, like in Brakhmut.
05:09 And because this is not a Russian conventional soldier, it's less problematic when you have
05:18 a lot of attrition.
05:19 But it's now a real problematic for Russia, but on the political point of view, because
05:26 of the disparities, conflicts between regular forces, Wagner groups, and I think Trigogine,
05:36 it's more and more a political character in the Russian special operations.
05:44 So it's more problematic in the political point of view, but it's also still an operational
05:52 opportunity in the critical areas of operation.
05:56 Thibault, thank you very much for sharing your expertise with us.
05:59 Thibault Fouillet, a former artillery officer and military specialist, speaking to me from
06:03 Lyon.