'We are aggressors and extremely evil!' Putin's mouthpiece delivers stark warning

A Russian state media host has said the country's citizens "always come back for what is theirs," as he proudly characterised Russia's forces the "aggressors" as the war in Ukraine grinds on.

Sergey Mardan reportedly made the comments in a clip translated and shared on social media by Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry.

"They say that we are aggressors and extremely evil, cruel people, and so on," Mardan said, with no distinction made between the country's citizens, and the Russian government. "I always reply to that: 'Yes, yes, you are right,'" the prominent Kremlin propagandist said.

"Yes, Russians are aggressors; yes, Russians can be cruel and do not forget anything. Russians always come back from what is theirs," he said, according to Gerashchenko's translation.

"Russians don't feel guilty. Russians are not prone to reflection," he added. "Russians are engaged in cultural appropriation and don't even understand what it is."

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The Kremlin is yet to comment on Mardan's remarks.

Putin and the Kremlin have consistenly framed Ukraine as a historical part of Russia throughout the conflict. In 2021, ahead of the start of the invasion, the Russian leader insisted that "Russians and Ukrainians were one people-a single whole."

But Russia's agression was met with a determined fightback by Ukraine, and many Western analysts see the war as a fight for the country's survival.

In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson last week, Vladimir Putin repeated his claim that "Ukraine is an artificial state," according to a Kremlin readout.

Former Russian president and current deputy head of the country's security council, Dmitry Medvedev, said in post on Telegram that Putin "told the Western world as carefully and in detail as possible why there was no Ukraine, there is not and there will not be."

This kind rheoric has been applified by Russian state media throughout the conflict.

Mardan has previously claimed that identifying as Ukrainian is a "completely deliberate" and political choice, comparing doing so to "swearing an oath with the devil."

"A person stands in front of the mirror, looks in the mirror, and says, 'I am a Ukrainian.'" he said, according to a translation provided by the Russian Media Monitor project. 

"He swears some kind of an oath and slits his vein, I don't know all that they do during it."

"You denounce Christ and say, 'Now I am a Ukrainian,'" Mardan said.

Ukraine has defied expectations to stand firm against Russia's advance almost two years on from the start of the invasion, with Volodymyr Zelensky vowing in August that Ukrainians "will not let go of our independence."