Kiev openly rejected a peace deal with Donbass republics, so Moscow had to protect them, the Russian president said
© Sputnik/Konstantin Mihalchevskiy
Kiev openly refused to implement a peace deal with rebels from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics so Russia had no option but to use military force to defend people living there, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated on Tuesday.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior officials “declared that the Minsk agreements cannot be implemented,” Putin recalled, referring to the roadmap to peace in Ukraine brokered by Russia, Germany and France.
The 2014 agreements detailed how Kiev could reintegrate its breakaway regions by offering them a general amnesty, greater autonomy, and representation in the government. Kiev stalled progress on the deal, claiming that it could only proceed with its part after retaking control of the rebel-held areas.
Hostilities in eastern Ukraine between government and rebel forces have continued since 2014, when authorities that came to power in Kiev after an armed coup used the military to quash the uprising in the east.
“They publicly refused to [implement the roadmap]. Well, tolerating this genocide that had been going on for eight years was no longer possible,” Putin explained.
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The Russian president added that Ukraine, backed by Western countries, was being “turned into a foothold against Russia.”
“They nourished the sprouts of neo-Nazism on purpose. A clash between Russia and those forces was inevitable, they were selecting the right time for an attack,” Putin said.
Russia pre-empted the expected aggression from Kiev by starting its offensive in late February, the Russian leader claimed. He said Moscow will achieve its goals, including the defense of the breakaway republics, which Russia recognized as independent states days before the attack.
The West attempted to retaliate against Moscow with economic sanctions and attempts to isolate it diplomatically and commercially on the international stage. Putin said Russia was too big a country for anyone to really isolate. “We will work with our partners who really want cooperation,” he said.
Putin made his remarks during a visit to Russia’s Vostochny space launch facility. Tuesday is International Space Day, celebrated on the date when the USSR made the world’s first manned mission to space in 1961. Putin remarked that Soviet space-race achievements had come into being despite its technological isolation from the West, which served as a good indicator that modern Russia didn’t need Western technologies to be successful either.
