Putin just used the remarkable phrase "awake to the virus of corruption", describing Ukrainians' awareness of the oligarch battles.

"We cannot but shudder when we think of those burned alive in Odessa, who still go unpunished"—Putin

"Ukraine has failed to attain stable statehood"—Putin

Putin is just reeling off about a dozen big names in Ukrainian industry that have gone bankrupt or are teetering on the brink. "Is that what their 'pro-Western choice' means?"

"Foreign consultants and a network of NGOs have control of all decisions in the Ukraine, from central government down to town councils and ports. And the Ukraine has no judicial independence any more; the USA directly controls the national anti-corruption agency. Yet the corruption is worse than ever it was. Do the Ukrainians even realise they are now a colony headed by puppets?"—Putin

"The Ukrainians have been induced to come up with such instruments as individual sanctions against their own citizens, even parliamentarians, and they are persecuting the Church"—Putin

"Patriotic sentiment in the Ukraine has been stripped of its national character and is tending to undo the nation's sovereignty"—Putin

"From 2014, the USA alone has transferred billions of dollars to weaponise the Ukraine ceaselessly before the eyes of the entire world"—Putin

If i was a Ukrainian politician i would leave now

"There has even been talk—and no idle chatter—about Ukraine developing nuclear weapons"—Putin

"With foreign support, the Ukraine could easily acquire tactical nukes"—Putin

While Putin delivers the speech of the century, Sky News gives you—Where's Whitty?

"Russia cannot but act to prevent the Ukraine from acquiring weapons of mass destruction"—Putin

"The USA and NATO have begun shamelessly turning the Ukraine into a theatre of military conflict"—Putin

"They insist NATO is a peaceful and defensive bloc posing no threat to Russia, and they insist we believe their words; but we have known since 1991 what their words are worth"—Putin

"I have never said this before in public, but I shall say it now: In 2000, when outgoing President Clinton visited Moscow, I asked him, 'How would America really view Russia joining NATO?'. His reaction was distinctly cool.
Even then, they were stoking North Caucasus terrorism, ignoring our security demands, repudiating arms treaties with us. I said to him, 'You don't have to be our friends; but why do you want to make an enemy out of us?'
The only answer I got out of him was that American Russia policy was nothing to do with our political régime; they just can't be doing with such a powerful and independent country as Russia in the world."—Putin

"Our forefathers would never have believed it if they'd been told the Ukraine would describe Russia as an enemy; but it is so"—Putin

"The more powerful our country becomes, the more sanctions and the more excuses for imposing them there will be. They will contain Russia's development that way unapologetically, as they have done before, merely because we exist. But we will never repudiate our values.
Let me be frank: our dialogue has met with no response from the US and NATO, so we are taking counter-measures to enhance our own security, and that's how we plan to go on"—Putin

"There is no interest [from the Western élite] in the peaceful resolution of the Donbass"—Putin

"We see no end to the shelling of women and children in Donbass, and the so-called civilised world and our Western colleagues proclaim themselves the only arbitrators of the world and pretend not to see this killing.
The only reason for it is that the locals failed to support the Stone Age nationalism and Nazism of the Kiev coup; that they wish to continue speaking their mother tongue and existing in their own culture. How much longer can such a situation be dragged out?"—Putin

"In this context, I make a decision that should have been made long ago: I immediately recognise the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk"—Putin