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Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Western countries of igniting the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, describing it as the “first instigator”.
Putin made it clear, during an interview with the “Moscow Kremlin Putin” program on the “Russia-1” channel, that the arms supplies provided by the West to Ukraine are causing the continuation of the smoldering conflict.
“It all started with an armed constitutional coup, and we had to protect the people of Crimea,” he said, stressing that “in any case, we would have ended up protecting the people of Donbass.”
He added that “the West, which pretends to have nothing to do with what is happening there, is the primary instigator of this conflict,” pointing to the transfer of millions of weapons, ammunition and military equipment to Ukraine to prolong the war.
He continued, “The former Ukrainian leadership can be held responsible for some mistakes, but this is their internal affair, but the implementation of a bloody coup is a completely different matter,” explaining that the current situation would not have happened without Western support.
He stressed that “the West crosses all red lines by supplying weapons to Ukraine,” noting that the West has been supplying weapons to Ukraine since 2014.