President Putin: Russia sure it will be victorious in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia will definitely defeat Ukraine that is in the grip of a new incarnation of Nazism just as it defeated Nazi Germany in Stalingrad 80 years ago.

The Russian leader made the comments in a fiery speech in Volgograd, known as Stalingrad until 1961, on Thursday, marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad against troops of Nazi Germany.

"Unfortunately we see that the ideology of Nazism in its modern form and manifestation again directly threatens the security of our country," Putin told an audience of army officers and members of local patriotic and youth groups.

Putin said he was quite ready to draw on Russia's entire arsenal, which includes nuclear weapons.

"Again and again we have to repel the aggression of the collective West. It's incredible but it's a fact: we are again being threatened with German Leopard tanks with crosses on them," Putin said.

Stalingrad was the bloodiest battle of World War Two, during which, the Soviet Red Army, at a cost of over one million casualties, broke the back of German invasion forces in 1942-3. The battle radically changed the course of the war and heralded the victory of the Soviet army over the Nazi troops.

Evoking the spirit of the defenders of Stalingrad, the Russian president said that the World War Two battle had become a symbol of "the indestructible nature of our people."

"Those who draw European countries, including Germany, into a new war with Russia, and ... expect to win a victory over Russia on the battlefield, apparently don't understand that a modern war with Russia will be quite different for them."

"We don't send our tanks to their borders but we have the means to respond, and it won't end with the use of armored vehicles, everyone must understand that," the Russian leader said.

MG