Vladimir Putin: The hidden detail you might've missed from his latest speech

Yesterday, for the first time, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the conflict in Ukraine a war,The Washington Post reports.

'Special military operation'

Putin had established a specific narrative for his actions in Ukraine by claiming to be performing a 'denazification' of the country or 'freeing Ukraine of Nazis'.

This is somethingPutin and the Kremlin consistently referred to as a ‘special military operation’.

The term was used by state media, and pro-Putin allies and was the backbone of Russian state propaganda on Ukraine.

Banning the word ‘war’ about Ukraine

Additionally, Putin's regime criminalized the spreading of fake information about the situation in Ukraine.

Thousands of people are reported to have been imprisoned for calling the Ukraine conflict a war. A punishable offence that was sending ordinary Russians to prison for a period of up to 15 years.

On Thursday 22 December, Putin was holding a speech after attending a State Council meeting on youth policy, CNN reports.

Surprisingly, he referred for the first time to war in Ukraine, something which experts have judged as an error of speech as opposed to an intentional shift in the rhetorics used by Putin. He said:

Our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war. We have been and will continue to strive for this.

This comment of Putin has drawn great criticism among his critics and Russia's anti war campaigners.

Nikita Yuferev, a former municipal official from St. Petersburg, who is now in exile due to his stance about the war, has called on Russian authorities via Twitter to prosecute Putin:

[This for] spreading fake information about the army. There was no decree to end the special military operation, no war was declared. Several thousand people have already been condemned for such words about the war.

Sources used:

- The Washington Post: ‘Putin declares “war” – aloud – forsaking his special euphemistic operation’

- CNN: ‘For first known time in public, Putin calls fighting in Ukraine a ‘war’