The Russian president assured on Sunday that he did not want a confrontation with Ukraine and that he expected a “peaceful” resolution of tensions with Kiev before the start of a years-long conflict that led to Russia’s invasion of that country.
Putin returned to the theme of the 2014 annexation of Crimea, one of the direct precedents of the current armed conflict, saying that his country “simply could not give a sword to the people of Crimea when they were already confronting the nationalists”.
Russia eventually annexed the peninsula to its territory through a decree declared illegal by Kiev and its allies.
“We assumed that we could solve the situation in an absolutely peaceful way. I was never afraid to provoke a confrontation,” the Russian president said in an interview with the Rossiya 1 channel, quoted by the TASS news agency .
“We could not simply refuse our support and protection to the people of Crimea. They were already under attack by the Nazis, as the Ukrainians say, and it was our sacred duty to protect them,” he explained.
However, Putin reiterated that he initially hoped to resolve the situation in Crimea, and by extension the breakaway regions of Donestk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, through negotiations.
“But now we realize that our so-called partners had no intention of solving anything by peaceful means. They simply pumped weapons into Ukraine and prepared its forces for military operations,” he added.
Putin made the remarks after a visit to Crimea followed by a stop in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, occupied by Russian troops, where he pledged to promote reconstruction and development projects while accusing Ukrainian troops of attacks against civilians.
The Russian president also said, in statements collected by TASS, that Ukrainian troops planted mines in medical centers and hospitals in the city before leaving their positions.
“All medical equipment is mined. This is not how normal people behave,” he said.
Putin finally promised to accelerate plans to build a new residential area in the city to make it a “little piece of paradise”.
Source: DN
