RT
Ukraine began the war in 2014 by targeting civilians in Donbass, the Russian president said
Moscow is trying to end the conflict in Ukraine, which was started by Kiev following the 2014 US-backed coup, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
“Let me repeat: we did not start the military activities, we are trying to end them,” the president said in a meeting with aviation industry executives in Moscow. Ukrainian nationalists first resorted to force in 2014, with the coup d’etat in Kiev, followed by events in Crimea and in Donbass, he argued.
“They started the war,” Putin said. “For eight years, that war continued – a war to exterminate people who live there, who feel themselves related by blood to Russia and Russian culture. How long were we supposed to tolerate that?”
The Russian president also accused Ukraine of violating the agreements and commitments made with Western mediation, in an apparent reference to the Minsk…
