Russia is “invincible” as it was also according to World War II, announced today, Friday, President Vladimir Putin in his meeting with teenagers on the occasion of the start of the school year.

“I have understood why we won the Great Patriotic War: it is impossible to defeat a people with such mental fortitude. We were absolutely invincible and today we are the same,” he told students in televised remarks. Putin was talking about the letters that his father, who was fighting at the front, exchanged with the grandfather of the Russian president.

The Russian head of state revealed that he was impressed by the determination of his grandfather, who, having just lost his wife who was killed during the war, instructed his son: “Beat these bastards!”.

“And today, families as if they constitute the vast majority” of the population, he said.

The Russian president often draws parallels between the war against Nazi Germany and the invasion of Ukraine.

His meeting with the students took place on the occasion of the beginning of the new school year and the start of “Conversations of Importance”, patriotic education courses that were introduced into the school curriculum shortly after the start of the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia presents its invasion of its neighbor as an existential battle, accusing Ukraine of being in the hands of anti-Russian neo-Nazis at the service of a West bent on destroying Russia.

Putin also presents Crimea, annexed in 2014, as well as Russian-held areas in eastern and southern Ukraine as historical Russian lands that should never have been annexed to Ukraine.