Peter Dutton Has Blast Vladimir Putin After Russian president as ‘crazy, cynical and ruthless’ invasion of ukraine,
As the Russian military struggles to make progress in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance, Defense Minister Said Putin’s war was a “miscalculation” and he could die after 22 years in charge of the world’s largest country.
Mr Dutton also launched a personal attack on the Russian leader, who used to be a spy for the Russian Secret Service – the KGB – in Dresden, Germany, and then at home.
Peter Dutton calls Vladimir Putin ‘crazy, cynical and ruthless’ after Russian president invades Ukraine
Peter Dutton is pictured next to PM Scott Morrison in Brisbane on Thursday
‘He never accepted the outcome of the Cold War. In fact, he is best understood as an unstructured creature of the Soviet Union, the sword and shield of the KGB,’ Mr Dutton said in a speech at the United States Studies Center in Sydney on Wednesday.
‘From the Dresden desk to the Kremlin, he has been a paranoid and utterly brutal operative. There should be no surprise in his actions.
It is becoming clear that Putin’s gamble on Ukraine has been a miscalculation. It may very well destroy man himself
‘He holds a deep and lasting resentment towards the West and the United States in particular.
‘And he wants more than anything to restore an imperial Russian Empire to his full control. That much is very clear.
‘A successful, democratic, Europe-oriented Ukraine has no place in its completely distorted and cynical world view.
‘ And so he sets out to destroy it. It is becoming clear that Putin’s gamble on Ukraine has been a miscalculation. It itself can very well destroy man.’
Putin invaded Ukraine on 24 February, after building up troops from November.
Despite being a superior and larger military power, Ukrainian resistance backed by Western equipment has caused their troops to struggle to take major cities.
Kharkiv: Firefighters arrive at the residential building in the center of the bombed city on Monday
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, said so far about 20,000 people have managed to leave the city of Mariupol.
Mr Dutton’s speech came as some 20,000 Ukrainians fled the city of Mariupol, surrounded by a humanitarian corridor, on Tuesday.
After days of relentless Russian shelling, a mass exodus of civilians in at least 4,000 cars left the port via the designated route, which runs for more than 160 miles to the west to the Ukrainian-occupied city of Zaporizhzhya.
But as families rushed to flee in their flocks, there were desperate scenes in Mariupol’s hospitals, which are under attack by Putin’s army.
At the city’s hospital number three, a heart-wrenching picture showed tiny premature babies, left without parents.
Meanwhile, the city’s governor said patients and staff were being held “like hostages” at the city’s hospital number two, also known as the Intensive Care Hospital.
“Getting out of the hospital is impossible,” wrote Pavlo Kirilenko, the head of the Ukrainian military administration in the Donetsk region, in a Telegram post reported by ITV.
Civilians evacuated from Mariupol are seen in a building in Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine, on Tuesday as a rise in Russian attacks on the region
Civilians evacuated from Mariupol due to a rise in Russian attacks on the region are held in a circus building in Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine, on Tuesday.
But for some desperate civilians fleeing Mariupol, they traveled through a ‘humanitarian corridor’ set up by the Russian military in the Rostov region in Russia. It is unknown how many Ukrainians took this particular route. Pictured: A Russian soldier with people evacuated from Mariupol in a bus on the Ukraine-Russia border at Veselo-Voznesenka, a border crossing point in Russia’s Rostov region, on Tuesday
He said: ‘They are working hard, we sit in the basement. Cars can’t go to the hospital for two days already. High-rise buildings are burning all around. The Russians drove 400 people from neighboring houses to our hospital. We can’t get out.
Some desperate citizens who had successfully escaped from Mariupol ended up in Russia – after traveling east through a ‘humanitarian corridor’ set up by the Kremlin in the Rostov region. It is unknown how many Ukrainians took this particular route instead.
Russia has announced the establishment of safe corridors to allow citizens to leave Ukraine, but there have been few takers. Elderly people were mainly among those who fled Mariupol in buses traveling to the Rostov region in Russia on Tuesday.
Evacuation routes set up by Moscow have led mostly to Russia and its ally Belarus, drawing criticism from Ukraine and the West. And Russia has continued to rocket up cities even after the corridors were announced.
So far, about 20,000 people have managed to escape from Mariupol via a humanitarian corridor, a key Ukrainian official said, and of the 4,000 vehicles leaving the city, 570 have reached Zaporizhzhya, while others will spend the night in various cities along the way. .
Mariupol has been besieged by Russian troops for more than 10 days, facing heavy shelling that has killed more than 2,300 people and left residents struggling for food, water, heat and medicine. .
In the city’s hospital number three, a heart-wrenching picture showed tiny premature babies left without parents