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The launch of Moscow’s military campaign in February of last year was not the starting point of the Ukrainian conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued. He explained in an interview that the underlying cause of the current hostilities dates back a decade.
In an interview with China Media Group published in full on Monday, Putin noted that the “hostilities in Ukraine did not start with our special military operation, but way before – in 2014.”
He recounted how Western countries, who had acted as guarantors of an agreement between then-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich and the opposition, reneged and instead “supported a coup d’état.” According to the Russian head of state, while Yanukovich may well have made certain mistakes in those years, those should have been addressed “through democratic procedures, rather than by means of militants in the streets.”
Putin went on to accuse the West of starting the conflict in Donbass“by proxy of the Kiev regime,” which resulted in the deaths of women and children. He also insisted that, unlike Russia, Ukraine did not honor the Minsk Agreements, which put an end to the fighting in the east of the country.
“Therefore, the start of the special military operation was not the start of a war, but an attempt to end it,” the Russian head of state argued.
In addition, Putin pointed out that Moscow has always been ready to negotiate peace with Kiev as long as its “legitimate security interests”are respected. He added that Russia reached an agreement with Ukraine in Istanbul last year, but Kiev pulled out of it and has since effectively ruled out any such dialogue.
During the interview, the Russian head of state also lamented America’s untrustworthiness, citing its exit from the Iran nuclear deal under President Donald Trump, and its promises made earlier to Russia that NATO would not expand eastward.
President Putin also dismissed the idea of the Western ‘rules-based order,’ characterizing it as colonialism in disguise. He noted no one has ever seen those rules, with Washington apparently modifying them as it pleases, depending on the situation.
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https://www.rt.com/russia/585072-putin-ukraine-conflict-started-2014/
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Well said. Would just like to add to your great overview on the true nature of the conflict in Ukraine. Never forget that the evil demoness VICTORIA NEULAND working at the State Department, has always been involved in every coup d'etat for so-called REGIME CHANGE, way back to the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic, Sadam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi etc. and for years she along with the CIA have attempted over and over again to remove Syrian President Bashar al Assad using CIA trained FAKE Syrian freedom fighters, so the US can shut down the Russian pipelines that pass through Syrian territory, then build new oil pipelines from the Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, making billions for the big western oil conglomerates.
In 1991 former Secretary of State James Baker promised the Russians that NATO would not expand eastward by even ONE INCH. It was one of the conditions the Russian Federation demanded before dissolving the Warsaw Pact. Of course our side LIED to the Russians, our side never kept their word and NATO has agressively expanded eastward towards Russia by over ONE Thousand Miles severely compromising their national security. Russia never started this but they will finish it. Of course NATO was always planning on kicking the Russians off of their Navy base in Crimea opening the heart of the Russian Federation to a national security threat. So President Putin reincorporated Crimea as part of Russia as it always was before 1959. The question is, why for all these decades has Deep State tried to destroy Russia? So much malice and hate.
Finally, after the coup d'etat against Viktor Yanukovich, there was an election for a new President in 2014 and the mostly Russian-Ukrainians were barred from voting in that election. Being orphaned with no country, the Donbass region broke away that same year and were no longer part of Ukraine. They formed the DPR and LPR afterwards. It was the Donetsk Peoples' Republic and the Lugansk Peoples' Republic that begged Putin to make an end to the atrocities that the Ukraine Nazis were committing against the Russian-Ukrainians. That is why President Putin called his Special Military Operation, the "DENAZIFICATION OF UKRAINE". As such, Russia is NOT invading Ukraine since the Donbass region broke away from Ukraine way back in 2014.