Putin Ally: Poland, Finland Capitals 'Will Be Ours'

A Russian propagandist and ally of President Vladimir Putin said that not only is Ukraine's capital of Kyiv is Russian territory, the capitals of NATO members Poland and Finland "will also be ours."

Newsweek reported that Vladimir Solovyov said in a recent clip of his Russian TV show, posted Friday on X by Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Ukraine's Internal Affairs minister, that "Kyiv is the mother of Russian cities."

"Take the old lady back to her motherland," Solovyov said in the clip, which was translated to English. "The Ukronazis came here ... I think that in another five minutes, Warsaw and Helsinki will also be ours, Russian. And historically, it's all true."

Ukraine, Poland, and Finland were part of the Russian empire until the communist revolution in 1917. After that, only Ukraine remained part of the Soviet Union, although Poland was part of the Warsaw Pact defense treaty of eastern and central European socialist republics.

Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999 and Finland joined the military alliance in April 2023. Under NATO's Article 5, if Russia tried to invade either country, it would start a war with all of NATO's members. Putin has said he has no interest in engaging with NATO militarily, but many fear that if Russia prevails in its war with Ukraine, Putin will try to conquer other European nations.

Solovyov also took a shot at U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Tuesday on the heels of the U.S. approving $60 billion in aid to Ukraine. During his visit, Blinken reportedly said it was Ukraine's decision whether to use U.S. weapons to hit targets on Russian soil, something the Biden administration was previously cautious to endorse.

Blinken also played guitar with a Ukrainian bar band for the song "Rockin' in the Free World" by Neil Young.

"Also, most importantly, [Blinken] brought weapons, but he said: 'It's not allowed to hit Russian territory.' And what territory do you hit, you idiots? It's all Russia," Solovyov said in the clip. "Moreover, what about the filthy language he's using in our Russian Kyiv? We'll present him with a rent charge for singing all kinds of nonsense in our Russian city."

Newsweek reported it reached out for comment to the Russian government, NATO and the foreign ministries of Ukraine, Poland, and Finland.

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