Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended that Moscow has always treated the Ukrainian population «with respect and warmth», while acknowledging that the «clash» with the «neo-Nazi regime» in Ukraine was «inevitable».
«In Ukraine, the Ukrainian people are the first and foremost victims of the deliberate sublimation of hatred towards Russians. In Russia, it is exactly the opposite (…) We have always treated and treat the Ukrainian people with respect and warmth,» Putin said.
However, the Russian leader regretted that the confrontation with Ukraine was «inevitable», and speculated that without the territorial invasion of its neighboring country in February, the situation today would be the same for Russia, only that the Eurasian nation would be in a worse position.
Putin has thus dropped the idea that Western powers’ support for Ukraine would have occurred regardless of whether Russia had launched the so-called «special military operation,» the euphemism by which they refer to the invasion.
«The situation in Ukraine has been brought by their so-called friends to a point where it has become deadly for Russia and suicidal for the Ukrainian people themselves,» the president stressed, as reported by the Russian news agency TASS.
Finally, Putin said that the war in Ukraine is a kind of civil war in which «the people are fighting each other», and took the opportunity to compare the situation with the conflicts in Russia in the 20th century after the October Revolution when, while the population was fighting each other, the Western powers were «rubbing their hands together».
