Russia President Vladimir Putin says Moscow will not allow “anyone” to pose threats against the Russian Federation, warning about a possible global clash.

Putin, who was sworn in on Tuesday for a record-breaking fifth term as Russia’s president and began another six-year-long tenure, made the remarks on Thursday on the occasion of the capitulation of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II in Europe in 1945. 

“Russia will do everything to prevent a global clash. But at the same time we will not allow anyone to threaten us. Our strategic forces are always in a state of combat readiness,” stressed the 71-year-old Russian leader in a speech at the Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square, marking the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

“Revanchism, the mockery of history and the striving to justify current followers of Nazism are part of the Western elites’ general policy of instigating ever new regional conflicts, interethnic and inter-religious strife and containing sovereign, independent centers of world development,” Putin added.

His remarks came as on his orders, the Russian military launched its “special military operation” in neighboring Ukraine in February 2022 to “de-Nazify” and “de-militarize” the ex-Soviet republic seeking NATO membership.

Since the onset of the ongoing war, the West, and most notably the United States, supported Ukraine with cash and heavy weaponry while imposing unprecedented sanctions on Russian officials and entities.

“Russia is now going through a difficult, milestone period, the fate of the Motherland, its future depends on each of us,” Putin further said.

The Soviet Union, of which Russia was the largest part, lost some 27 million people in World War II, including many millions in Ukraine, which was also part of the Soviet Union but eventually pushed Nazi forces back to the capital Berlin, where defeated Adolf Hitler took his own life and the red Soviet Victory Banner was hoisted over the Reichstag in late April 1945.

Putin also accused the West of trying to incite global conflicts and interethnic hostility and restraining sovereign development centers.

“In the West, they would like to forget the lessons of the Second World War. But we remember that the fate of mankind was decided in the grand battles near Moscow and Leningrad, Rzhev, Stalingrad, Kursk and Kharkiv, near Minsk, Smolensk and Kyiv, in heavy, bloody battles from Murmansk to the Caucasus and Crimea,” the Russian president added at the parade, which also featured Russia’s Yars intercontinental strategic missile.

After calling for a minute of silence to honor the fallen, Putin ended with the words: “For Russia! For victory! Hurrah!”, providing the cue for thousands of troops to answer with three loud cheers.

The Kremlin has repeatedly warned the endless flow of advanced arms to Ukraine will only prolong the war.