Putin says Russians have united behind troops in military operation
Putin praised frontline troops at a Kremlin awards ceremony and compared them with militias that defended Russia in earlier centuries.
Russians have united in providing tangible support to troops taking part in the special military operation, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, Russia's state news agency TASS reported.
Putin made the remarks at an awards ceremony held in the Kremlin in Moscow.
He said people of different ethnic backgrounds, cultures and religious faiths feel a strong bond with one another, and that this unity extends to the men fighting on the front lines.
Putin said Russian troops on the front lines are currently defending the country's statehood.
He recalled that more than four centuries ago a people's militia drove foreign invaders out of the homeland, and said similar episodes took place in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Putin said the country's troops are now courageously defending Russia's interests and its statehood as part of the special military operation.
Russia uses the term special military operation for its military campaign in Ukraine, which Moscow launched in February 2022 after months of tension over Ukraine's relations with the West and Russia's security demands.
The campaign has been widely condemned by Western governments, which have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia, while Ukraine has continued to resist Russian forces along a long front line.
The Kremlin regularly uses ceremonies such as the one Putin attended to honor service members and to frame the fighting as a defense of the state.
