President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reiterated his position that Russia did not start the war in Ukraine but launched what it calls a "special military operation" to try to stop it.
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reiterated his position that Russia did not start the war in Ukraine but launched what it calls a "special military operation" to try to stop it.
In his yearly speech to the Valdai Discussion Club, being held in Sochi, Putin said Russia, the world's largest country by area, had no need to take territory from Ukraine.
He said the conflict was not therefore imperial or territorial but about the global order, and that the West, which had lost its hegemonic power and always needed an enemy, had lost touch with reality.
Sure, but now it’s in print (or at least digitally published), so later on there’s a mountain of journalism, this bit included, that says that he denies any wrongdoing. Every bit of getting his doublespeak out to the public helps
Peace is not war. As much as you should rightfully hate Putin for overstepping his boundaries and bullying Ukraine, he did not fucking start the war. Ukraine did. All the deaths, the destruction, everything? Ukraine's fault for not allowing a peaceful operation to happen that would have been eventually peacefully and justly resolved without the mass murder of innocents, including young children.
Sick of revisionist history, and the audacity of recent revisionist history. Putin is the bad guy here. Make no mistake. Do not think I am pro-Russia, pro-Putin here. But not a single bullet was fired, not a single person died before Ukraine decided to defend itself the only way a hateful, war-mongering, blood-thirsty country can.
The war started with long range weaponry so in a very strict and literal sense it's quite possible that Ukraine started defending itself before a single bullet was fired.
The previous commenter's imaginary universe might've actually crossed paths with reality by mere chance, a sort of propagand equivalente of "if you have an infinite number of monkeys typing a typewritters you'll end up with the complete works of Shakespear", i.e. "with enough derranged rambling, some of it might actually and by chance coincide with reality".
I think I became dumber. This guy actually believes Putin didn't invade a country and cause the murder of Ukrainian children with his troops in the first place. He wins first prize for the Russia Propaganda Delusions Awards.
If gang breaks into your home, starts destroying your things, and manhandling your family, you just gonna sit there and let them do it because it would be "eventually peacefully and justly resolved"?
If your answer isn't "no", then you're a liar. You'd defend your home and your family, because that's the right thing to do...
It wouldn't be "hateful", "war-mongering", or "blood-thirsty" it'd be heroic.
So how can you sit there and say to us that you expect the whole of Ukraine to just allow that to happen to themselves??
To watch this band of 100,000 men take everything away from them - their culture, their homes, their lives - and do jack shit about it?!
The war didn't start with a bullet, it started when Putin's army marched into Ukrainian soil to claim it as their own.
You sound like the type of person who blames the victim of a bully when they inevitably lash out. If you aren't, you're doing a bad job of proving it.