The Russian president argued that in fact the origin of hostilities flaring up was when West backed the Maidan coup
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,…