BY: VLAD GREEN, OP-ED
Nearly four years into Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Vladimir Putin stood before the world and delivered remarks that should trigger international alarm—not debate.
At his annual press conference, Putin claimed that “the ball is in Kyiv and its allies’ court” to end the war, while simultaneously declaring his certainty that Russian forces would capture additional Ukrainian cities before the end of the year. This is not contradiction. It is coercion. It is the language of an aggressor who believes peace means surrender and diplomacy means conquest.
Even more damning was Putin’s outright refusal to accept responsibility for the tens of thousands killed since Russia launched its 2022 invasion—the deadliest European war since World War II.
“We did not start this war.”
“We do not consider ourselves responsible for the loss of life.”
These statements are not political spin. They represent a complete rejection of reality. Russian troops crossed a sovereign border. Russian missiles destroyed cities. Russian forces displaced millions. These are established facts. Denying them is not interpretation—it is delusion.
When a leader who personally authorized an invasion denies responsibility for its consequences, the issue is no longer policy. It is fitness to govern.
Putin’s words reveal a leader exhibiting classic symptoms of authoritarian decay: moral disengagement, denial of causality, and an inflated sense of impunity. History shows that such leaders do not correct course—they escalate. They gamble. They externalize blame. And when challenged, they reach for ever more dangerous tools to preserve power.
That Putin commands the world’s largest nuclear arsenal makes this denial infinitely more dangerous. A man who cannot acknowledge responsibility for mass death cannot be trusted with weapons capable of ending civilization.
Putin also attempted to minimize the war’s economic devastation, even as Russia’s own central bank cut its benchmark interest rate to 16 percent amid slowing growth. Sanctions are biting. Labor shortages are deepening. Russia’s future is being consumed to sustain a war that Putin refuses to admit he started—or controls.
This is not strength. It is decay wrapped in bravado.
The international community must stop treating Putin’s statements as normal diplomacy. They are not. They are warning signs. The world has seen this pattern before: leaders who lose touch with reality, deny accountability, and believe themselves untouchable inevitably drag their nations—and others—into catastrophe.
Putin’s press conference was not a message to Ukraine. It was a message to the world: he feels no responsibility, recognizes no limits, and accepts no accountability.
That makes him not just a bad leader—but a clear and present danger to global security.