Foreign powers had wanted to use Kiev in order to wreck Russian statehood, the president said
Protesters at a barricade during the unrest in Kiev on January 24, 2014. © Sergei Supinsky / AFP
Western countries have spent years steering Ukraine towards a conflict with Russia, as they planned to use Kiev as a tool to undermine Russian national security, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. He argued that Russia’s retaliation, including its ongoing military operation in the neighboring state, was justified.
“This problem was not created yesterday. It was instigated by certain forces in the West, which for a long time were preparing a hybrid war against our country, and did everything to transform Ukraine into an instrument of undermining the foundations of the security of the Russian Federation,” Putin said during a meeting with the members of the African peace mission in St. Petersburg, following the two-day Russia-Africa Summit.
The president added that the West had planned to use Kiev to “damage Russia’s positions on the world stage, and to undermine our statehood.”
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