WASHINGTON According to US and Western officials, Russian President Vladimir Putin might legally declare war on Ukraine as early as May 9, allowing Moscow to fully mobilise its reserve forces if invasion plans stall.
May 9 is celebrated in Russia as "Victory Day," commemorating the country's defeat of the Nazis in 1945. Officials in the West have long suspected that Putin would use the symbolic significance and propaganda value of that day to announce either a military victory in Ukraine, a massive escalation of hostilities, or both.
Officials have started to zero in on one scenario, in which Putin launches war on Ukraine on May 9. Putin has insisted on referring to the deadly months-long fight as a "special military operation," thereby prohibiting the use of words like invasion and war. Last week, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told LBC Radio that he believes he will try to move away from his "special operation."
"He has been creating the groundwork for the day when he can say, "Look, this is now a battle against Nazis, and I need more people." I'm running out of Russian cannon fodder.'" Putin has presented his invasion of Ukraine, a country with a Jewish president, as a campaign of supposed "denazification" throughout the conflict, as per reports, a statement ridiculed by historians and political analysts alike.
"I would not be surprised, and I have no information about this, "if Putin declares on May Day that "we are now at war with the world's Nazis and we need to mass organise the Russian people." Wallace said.
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