Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has described Western arms sales to Russia-invaded Ukraine as "participation in crimes" in the country. NATO members would supply Kiev with weapons worth billions of dollars, Putin told state television on Sunday. These deliveries are "in a way" a participation in the war, because Kiev receives the weapons without payment. The West is thus "partly to blame for the shelling of residential areas," Putin claimed. Western politicians have repeatedly rejected this view.

A year after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine, Putin again portrayed "leading NATO countries" as aggressors. "They have only one goal - the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and its most important part, the Russian Federation," said the president. The most important thing for a Russian victory, on the other hand, is "the unity of the people," emphasized the 70-year-old.