Putin weighs in on root cause of Ukraine conflict
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine would never have happened if there hadn't been a coup in Kiev in 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted on Friday. He was referring to the violent overthrow of the elected president Victor Yanukovich.
Speaking to mothers of Russian soldiers, Putin stressed that the Maidan resulted in direct foreign control over Ukrainian institutions, which Russia has no choice but to oppose.
At the turn of the century, Russians were told everything would be great if they accepted outside control, and started “playing on someone else’s field,” Putin said. It was those outsiders seeking to control Russia that have created the current situation, “including in the zone of the special military operation,” he added.
Without naming the West specifically, Putin said the outsiders had significant influence in Ukraine as well, but after 2014 they gained total control over the country.
I understand that we have not gathered here for serious discussions of political issues, but still, if there had not been a coup d'état in Ukraine in 2014, none of this would have happened. Simply none of it.
The US “midwifed” the Maidan protests, in the infamous words of Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, resulting in a successful power grab, fueled by nationalists. Putin described them as “open neo-Nazis” who glorify WWII Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, killer of Russians, Poles, Jews and “everyone down the line, on Hitler’s orders.”
“That’s who, that’s what, our boys in the zone of the special military operation are fighting,” the Russian president said. He argued that many Ukrainians opposing them “do not even understand what they are doing."
“They are playing someone else's game, but we have to fight for our interests, for our people, for our country. And that’s what we’re doing,” the Russian president said.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.
