Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia was left with no choice but to launch a military operation in Ukraine because of the persecution of the people of Donbass by Kyiv following the 2014 Western-backed Euromaidan coup.
During a meeting with the businessmen Kremlin on Monday, Putin said that Russia could not ignore the plight of the Russian-speaking population in the neighbouring country. He added that Russia's position in the ongoing conflict is clear, as it stems from the turbulent events arising in Kyiv in early 2014.
“You need to understand that we weren’t the ones who orchestrated the coup in Ukraine,” Putin said. “[The West] has always told us that there should be democracy and elections... but they carried out a coup, a bloody one, in fact—as if it were normal. They later went on to suppress the Donbass, killing people with helicopters and jets.”
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“They practically forced us into doing what we’re doing today, and now they’re trying to blame us for it,” the president said. The coup against the government turned bloody with the counterprotests and more riots, including deadly clashes in Odessa in May 2014, where 48 people were killed. The majority Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk rejected the Euromaidan and voted for independence from Ukraine.
The new government in Kyiv responded by sending troops in the spring of 2014 and repeatedly shelling and bombing Donetsk and other Donbass cities.
Later on, the Ukrainian side refused to implement the UN-backed 2014-2015 Minsk Accords, which would have granted autonomy to Donetsk and Lugansk. EU officials, including former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, acknowledged later that Kiev had used the pause in the fighting to rebuild its army and economy.
Putin quoted Ukraine’s failure to respect the Minsk accords and the attacks on the rights of Russian-speakers as “the root causes” of the conflict, describing Kyiv’s actions as “genocide.” Since the beginning of this war, he has been firm on demands like Ukraine dropping its NATO bid, which Moscow views as an existential threat, de-Nazification, becoming a neutral state, and respecting the liberation of Crimea and four other former Ukrainian regions as part of Russia.
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