In Moscow, pro-Putin galvanized by his threatening speech

Russia “will not give in” to the West: pro-Kremlin Muscovites said they were confident on Friday in their country's victory, the day after a speech by Vladimir Putin threatening the West. The Russian president, who launched his army to attack Ukraine in February 2022, estimated Thursday evening that this conflict now had all the makings of a “world” war and warned that strikes against Westerners were not excluded.

These threats came at the end of a day of extreme tensions, with Russia having used an intermediate-range ballistic missile (up to 5,500 km) in Ukraine, designed to carry an atomic warhead. A shot presented by Vladimir Putin as a response to strikes carried out by Ukraine with Western missiles with a range of around 300 km.

“They are not stupid, those who seek to intimidate us”

In the streets of Moscow, those who agree to speak welcome the determination displayed by the Kremlin. “Russia will overcome everything, no one will be able to defeat it,” enthuses Alexei Peshcherkin. He judges that Putin “does everything very well. It leaves no chance to those who want to harm Russia,” assures this 57-year-old plumber.

The president's address to the nation “provoked in me a feeling of security”, adds Alexander Timofeyev, railway employee, 72 years old. If he says “not to rule out” a Third World War, he considers it “unlikely”. “They are not stupid, those who seek to intimidate us,” he said. “But they are afraid. And fear feels good sometimes,” he assures.

Our file on the war in Ukraine

Yulia Kim, a 52-year-old doctor, notes that “the escalation is increasing” between Moscow and the West and confides that she fears “the start of a nuclear war”. “But we must fight for our independence and resist until the end,” she emphasizes. Andreï, a 61-year-old economist, is convinced that “Russia has sufficient means to defend its independence”.